


These Summer Days

by Trumpeteer34



Series: Hulkeye Prompt Series [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: 30 Days of Writing, Anxiety Attacks, Cooking, Dating, Deaf Clint Barton, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Love Confessions, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor references to past abuse, Not Thor: The Dark World Compliant, Panic Attacks, Prompt Fic, Romance, Summer, Summer Vacation, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:21:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 62,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24496390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trumpeteer34/pseuds/Trumpeteer34
Summary: After a small lab incident, Bruce and Clint realize they need a long-overdue vacation.30 Days of Summer Fic prompts! Updates everyday thru the month of June.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Avengers Team, Bruce Banner & Clint Barton, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Bruce Banner/Clint Barton, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, previous Bruce Banner/Betty Ross
Series: Hulkeye Prompt Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769758
Comments: 153
Kudos: 39





	1. Vacation

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> Basic timeline is that this takes place in the summer of 2015: a little over three years after the Chitauri Invasion in the 2012 film. _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_ took place back in April of 2014. Please note that this is not compliant with _Thor: The Dark World_ , as I still have not seen it.
> 
> You don't need to have read part one of this series _Our First Christmas_ to read this. Just know that Bruce and Clint have been dating for about 7 months at the start of this fic. There may be a few references, but they'll be minimal.

There was a hand running through his hair, ever so gently. 

That was the first thing Bruce noticed as he started coming to, which was swiftly followed by the happy thought: _He’s back._

Bruce drew in a breath and tipped his head slightly, pausing when his forehead bumped into resistance. “Welcome back,” he mumbled, not opening his eyes yet.

The hand in his hair traveled down over his neck and to his shoulder. “Seems like I missed the party,” Clint commented lightly as his fingertips ran lightly across the bare skin of his shoulder.

Bruce only offered a hum at the feeling of Clint’s hand on him before his words registered. “Party?” Bruce asked, finally opening his eyes.

He was met with the sight of black fabric that he easily recognized as the pants of Clint’s work uniform. Up close, he could smell hints of smoke and dirt and something that reminded him of gasoline in the fabric, which meant he hadn’t even had a chance to change yet, let alone shower. He must have just gotten back. 

Bruce glanced up and his chest was filled with the same delighted warmth that came each time he looked upon Clint’s face, though this time was immediately tampered with the concern that shot through him. There was a bruise upon his cheek and a bandage upon his forehead and he looked _tired._

Clint must have seen the worry that appeared on his face, for he smiled and patted his shoulder. “It looks worse than it actually is,” he said reassuringly.

“Are you sure? What happened?” Bruce asked, eyes moving over the different bruises and wounds he could see. He sat up with some effort and carefully looked his boyfriend over. “I thought this was supposed to be just a reconnaissance thing.”

“It was, until it wasn’t,” Clint replied with a stiff shrug. “Now, are _you_ okay?”

“Am I okay?” Bruce asked, confused.

Clint looked confused too for a moment before a touched and amused grin appeared on his face. “Aw, babe, I’m flattered you’ve only had eyes for me since waking up,” he said, sounding delightedly surprised, if in a tired sort of way.

“What are you…?” Bruce glanced away and finally realized he wasn’t in their bedroom. He wasn’t even lying on a mattress.

Looking around himself, he realized he was in the lab in what could only be described as a nest of sorts. There were blankets and the cushions from the lab sofa surrounding him, arranged to create a massive divot of soft cozy fabric. He realized with dread that he was in the tattered remains of a pair of slacks and nothing else. Some of the lab tables were shoved aside awkwardly, but nothing appeared to be broken.

Bruce looked around at the lab and around himself, feeling a mixture of confusion and dismay. “What…?”

“Yeah,” Clint began fondly, pulling one of the nearby blankets up and draping it over Bruce’s shoulders, “so a little robotic birdie told me you and Tony have been on a bender for over three days?”

As Clint gently snuggled up against him, Bruce tried to think of how long he and Tony had actually been working. “Surely it wasn’t that long,” he murmured, but he sounded unsure even to himself. He supposed that they had lost track of time…

Clint raised his hand and made a loose gesture as he spoke. “Agent Barton,” he began in an awful British accent, “Dr. Banner can be found in his laboratory with Sir. I’m afraid they had been working for approximately 82 hours with minimal breaks to rest and—”

“JARVIS, you nark,” Bruce interrupted even as he was trying not to laugh at Clint’s poor impersonation.

“You didn’t even let me get to the good part,” Clint complained with a grin. 

_“Do you perhaps mean the part where Dr. Banner transformed, created a nest of sorts, and then used Sir as an oversized teddy bear as they took a nap, Agent Barton?”_ JARVIS piped up politely.

Bruce immediately froze. 

Clint threw an arm around Bruce’s shoulders. “That’s the one,” he replied, humor lacing his words. He cozied up to Bruce. “It seems like Green Bean had to put an end to your science bender.”

“I don’t remember any of that,” Bruce replied, feeling slightly mortified. 

“Hardly a wonder why,” Clint replied, growing serious. “82 hours, Bruce?”

Bruce could feel himself start to grow defensive, but he felt the presence in his head roll over with a grumble. The fight went out of him and he sighed, and he felt the exhaustion really settle over him. 

This tended to happen when Tony and Bruce were left to their own devices. Pepper had flown off to California to take care of some business at the Stark Industries base out there for two weeks, so Tony was already a little manic without her steadying presence. And then when Clint and Natasha had gone off to parts unknown a week ago, it was only a matter of time before Bruce got sucked in to the chaos.

It seemed that everyone had been so busy lately. There was always work to be done, fights to fight, things to avenge, research to complete, the next big experiment… They were all being pulled in so many different directions. 

And that was just them doing things as a group. Individually, they were swamped.

Thor was back and forth between New York, New Mexico, and Asgard; it was always a surprise to see him in the tower for more than a day or two at a time. Clint and Natasha were in and out of the tower on different missions for either the New SHIELD or reconnaissance for threats that the Avengers had picked up on. Stark Industries was doing new and exciting things in the world, so either Tony and/or Pepper were out in the world working. And then there was Steve, who was keeping busy acclimating his found friend Bucky to the modern world while also trying to navigate his fragile state of mind. Steve and Bucky went back and forth between the tower and Washington DC to be with Sam and his resources at the VA. 

And then there was Bruce. 

He kept busy, to be sure, but there was nowhere to go. He went on the occasional reconnaissance mission when it required someone with his sort of expertise, but those were far and few between. He had an endless list of different experiments and research topics to complete, a list that only seemed to grow. He had been working with Hulk for the past several months to bring them to more of an understanding. Bruce still couldn’t fully remember most missions, but he had more than just the passing sensations and flashing of colors nowadays. Hulk’s vocabulary and comprehension of the world was growing. They were learning to communicate and work together, but it was an ongoing process.

For the most part, though, Bruce was bound to the tower.

And when everyone else was off doing their own thing, he tended to work.

And work.

And work.

He and Clint had talked about this before. They didn’t argue about much, but their workaholic tendencies seemed to be the main instigator of their disagreements. If there wasn’t much else to do in the tower when he was alone, why wouldn’t he work? They went back and forth on the topic, some disagreements more heated than others, but they always ended with a compromise to try to work a little less and try to find a better work-life balance.

It was easier to do when there were others around. But when Bruce found himself alone in a tower, he always tended to yield to the siren song of his work.

It never helped that Tony was just as bad as he was, if not worse.

And with it just being the two of them in the tower, they were sucked down the rabbit hole of work, and well. Here they were.

Bruce glanced around the lab, at the different pieces of evidence that it had taken his alter ego for him and Tony to stop working feverishly. He could feel some of the stiffness that came with a transformation, which was also thankfully evening out ever-so-slightly as he and Hulk communicated. He was tired, but not quite as exhausted as he had been, though he was embarrassed that Hulk had had to even come out to make him sleep because he had forgotten to do it himself.

Finally, Bruce sighed. “We lost track of time,” he mumbled, bringing a hand up to rub at one of his eyes. 

“Lost track of time,” Clint repeated.

Bruce felt his jaw tighten just slightly and he pulled the blanket over his shoulders a little tighter around him. He heard that grumble in his head again and he forced himself to relax, letting his eyes slip shut as he breathed out a calming breath. 

Clint must have felt him tense up, for he backed off a little. He didn’t go far, though. “Look,” he began with a small sigh, “I don’t mean to keep hounding you on this. I get that your work is important, I really do. I just… I’m worried.”

A moment passed before Bruce opened his eyes and looked at Clint. The archer was watching him, a look of genuine concern on his face that made Bruce melt a little. “I know,” he replied softly. His eyes went back to the different wounds across Clint’s body and he reached out to carefully trace the bandage on the archer’s forehead. “You’re not the only one,” he added.

A smile touched Clint’s lips and he caught Bruce’s hand before he heaved himself up onto his feet with a grunt. “Alright, it’s break time,” he announced, helping Bruce up. “And no, a Hulk nap doesn’t count as a break.” He wrapped an arm around Bruce’s torso and pulled an arm across his shoulders.

“Well, if that doesn’t count, then you have to take a break, too,” Bruce replied, trying not to lean too much into Clint; he had no idea how injured he was. They dodged around the out of place lab tables and made their way toward the elevator. “You haven’t even showered yet.”

“I could use a break,” Clint started to say, but then he paused. “A break…” he repeated, and Bruce could see his mind parsing something out. 

Clint looked over at him. “Bruce, when was the last time you took a break? Like, an actual vacation?”

“A vacation?” Bruce repeated. 

“Yeah,” Clint answered. “I know I took a week off—well, it was forced downtime, but still—not too long after the whole thing with Thor in New Mexico a few years ago. I can only imagine how long it’s been since you took some time off.”

As Bruce thought about it, they moved to the elevator, which immediately started to take them to Clint’s floor. They tended to spend more of their time together there, though they did occasionally spend nights down in Bruce’s suite.

“Well,” Bruce began, still struggling to think of his last real break, “I did spend those two months in Chile about a year and a half ago…” he began.

Clint turned a look over at him. “Weren’t you working?” he asked shrewdly.

“I wasn’t in a lab,” Bruce answered.

“But you were _working;_ providing medical aid still counts,” Clint pressed him, poking him in the side lightly. “C’mon, I mean the last time you took a _vacation._ Little to no work, gotten away, just relaxed and recharged, had fun.”

“Uh…” Every moment of silence that passed as Bruce clearly tried to think of the answer made Clint look more and more concerned. “I mean,” he began, bracing himself for Clint’s reaction, “I guess it was that summer Betty and I got away for a few days, a few months before the accident.”

The following silence was broken by the elevator doors opening. They made no move to exit. Bruce just stared downward, but he could feel Clint looking directly at him. 

“Well, that just settles it,” Clint finally said.

Bruce glanced over at Clint and raised an eyebrow.

Clint smiled at him. “Pack a bag, babe, cause we’re going on vacation.”

“Right now?” Bruce asked with an amused smile.

“Oh hell no,” Clint answered with a grin, moving forward with Bruce out of the elevator at last. “I want to take a nap right now, and you really should, too.”

“I want you to take a shower first and then let me look over your wounds. _Then_ you can take a nap.” They opened the door to Clint’s suite and they stepped inside. “Sound fair?”

An over-exaggerated sigh escaped from Clint, but Bruce knew he was just doing it to make him smile. “Only if you join me,” he bartered.

“In showering or napping?” Bruce asked.

“Why not both?”

Bruce smiled and pressed a kiss against Clint’s cheek, careful to avoid his bruises. “Deal,” he answered softly.

They were quiet as they showered together, the exhaustion from three days spent in a lab and a week-long mission catching up with them. Bruce was able to get a better look at Clint’s body and was relieved to see the damage seemed to be minimal. There was a nasty looking bruise on his ribs and a few scrapes on his knees from what looked like a rough landing, but aside from those and what Bruce had already spotted, it didn’t look too bad.

Still, Bruce helped him re-bandage everything once they were out of the shower and dried off. 

Bruce was carefully applying antibacterial ointment to the cut on Clint’s forehead when Clint spoke up. “I think we could all use a vacation,” he said softly.

Bruce paused for a moment, glancing down to make sure Clint’s hearing aids were back in before he spoke. “It has definitely been a stressful few months,” Bruce agreed, reaching for a bandage. “Everyone’s been so busy. It’s weird for everyone to be gone so often.”

Clint held still as Bruce applied the bandage, but he looked up at him. “Think we could convince the others to take a break, too?” When Bruce paused to meet his eyes, Clint looked off and shrugged a little stiffly. “I mean…it’s been a while since we were all together when we weren’t saving the day, you know? I miss us just hanging out.”

A soft smile crossed Bruce’s face and he gently ran a hand through Clint’s damp hair. “I know,” he admitted quietly. “I do, too. It’s been…kind of lonely, to be honest, with everyone gone all the time.”

A look of quiet guilt appeared on Clint’s face and Bruce lightly tugged his ear to make him stop. “What kind of vacation do you have in mind?” Bruce asked. “Think it could be something we could convince some of the others to join us in?”

Clint smiled and stood up, pulling Bruce into an embrace. “I bet we can come up with something together.”

Bruce returned the hug and for a moment, they just stood together in each other’s arms. Bruce let out a long breath and he felt some of the loneliness that had settled in him over the past week melt away. “I’m glad you’re back,” he murmured.

He couldn’t see Clint’s face, but Clint gave him a gentle squeeze. “Glad to be back,” he answered quietly. He pulled back and pressed a kiss against Bruce’s lips. He caught Bruce’s hands and started to pull him out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. “Now come on. Sleep, then vacation planning.”

Bruce huffed a small laugh, but he followed. 

A vacation sounded really nice, honestly.


	2. Windows Down

“Okay, you have the address?” Clint asked again.

Up ahead, Tony heaved a full-bodied sigh as he rolled his eyes. “Unless it’s changed in the past five minutes, Bird Feathers,” he began in faux-patience as they walked through the parking lot, “then I’m pretty sure I have the address.”

Next to Bruce, Clint shot him a mischievous look over the top of his ridiculous sunglasses and swung his arms a little more energetically, jingling the keys of the rental car. “I’m trying to do you a favor,” Clint went on in what he hoped was an innocent tone, but it had Bruce snorting a laugh. “I don’t want you to get lost out here in the boonies.”

“I’ve been stranded in the boonies before, I’ll have you know,” Tony shot back, turning around and walking backwards to address Clint face-to-face. “And I managed just fine.”

As Clint and Tony continued on, Bruce returned his attention to the paperwork in his hand and on the feeling of lightness that had slowly started settling over him. 

This had all come together so quickly, it hardly felt real. After the incident in the lab and a much needed night’s sleep, Clint and Bruce had talked more seriously about taking a trip to somewhere remote, where the nearest city was at least an hour’s drive away. They had done a little research and had settled on a large cabin off in the woods of Virginia that was available for immediate rent for the summer. There were hiking trails almost everywhere, situated in the Shenandoah Valley near the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, along with little towns that were sure to hold festivals and whatnot throughout the warm summer months. 

Clint had called everyone up for a group meeting to tell them that they were taking a break and that they had rented a cabin out in the woods for the month. There was apprehension at first, just because everyone was so busy, but a quick retelling of what had happened in the lab reminded them that they could all use a break. 

And so they took the quinjet out to the outskirts of a town about sixty miles from their cabin, as it was the closest town with both a grocery store and a car rental agency. It was Clint, Bruce, Tony, and Natasha, but the others would join them as their schedules opened up. 

Natasha had given them a quick salute with a smirk as she took the jet on ahead to the cabin. They needed the jet in case there were any emergencies during this vacation, but for day-to-day travel, a rental car was certainly less auspicious than a quinjet. 

Bruce looked over the paperwork, eyes going to the license plate numbers and the lot numbers their rentals were supposed to be in. He ignored the fake argument happening around him and looked around the lot. He spotted their cars and came to a pause, glancing ahead at Clint and Tony as they continued walking and bickering, wrapped up in their own little world.

Instead of cutting into their discussion, Bruce glanced around again, beyond the parking lot and toward the horizon. There were mountains to the west and the sky was a gorgeous shade of blue with puffy white clouds dotted here and there. It was a warm day, but the stray breeze that ruffled his curls was lovely. It felt nice to feel the sun on his skin. It had felt like far too long since he had been outside.

In his head, he felt Hulk rumble pleasantly like a cat basking in the sun.

Bruce felt himself smile as he tipped his head back, closing his eyes against the sunlight. _‘Like the warmth?’_ he thought.

_‘Warm is good,’_ Hulk replied back, sounding perfectly content.

_‘I’ll make sure you get to enjoy more of it,’_ Bruce promised. _‘As long as there aren’t any emergencies, we’re out here for the month, so there will be lots of time to enjoy the sun.’_

_‘Hulk enjoy sun. Banner rest,’_ Hulk reprimanded.

Bruce felt his smile grow a little rueful. _‘You and Clint are ganging up on me.’_

He could sense the Hulk’s savage smile at that, but any response was put off by the sound of his name being called.

Bruce opened his eyes and glanced off toward where Clint and Tony were standing about twenty feet from him. Clint had his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow once he had Bruce’s attention. “Everything okay?”

“If you two are finished, I found our rentals,” Bruce replied mildly, gesturing loosely at the two vehicles he had stopped next to.

There was a pause between them, but it only lasted a moment. Bruce smiled as they quickly made their way back to him.

==

After filling the trunk and back seats with the groceries, Clint and Bruce finally hit the road. Tony had started off toward the cabin straight from the rental office, since he was far too easily recognizable and would have been stopped dozens of times if he was put on grocery duty. For that reason, grocery shopping had fallen to Bruce and Clint. 

Clint pulled the car onto the highway and settled in for the drive. With one hand casually on the steering wheel, he reached over and gently took hold of Bruce’s hand. “Excited?” he asked, grinning over at him.

“It’ll be nice to see everyone together again,” Bruce answered, giving Clint’s hand a gentle squeeze. “And getting to spend some quality time with you is nice too, I guess,” he hedged with a teasing grin.

Clint laughed and ran his thumb across Bruce’s knuckles. “You guess?” he asked with a smirk. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you curling up against me in your sleep last night.”

Bruce could hardly deny that. It had been over a week since he had last seen Clint, and before that, he had been in and out of the tower. Bruce felt his smile slip away a little and he looked down at where their hands were together before he looked back at Clint. “I missed you,” he admitted softly.

The teasing smile on Clint’s face evened out to a more serious expression and he glanced away from the road to look at him. Bruce couldn’t see his eyes behind his sunglasses, but he could feel his eyes darting from feature to feature on his face. 

Bruce felt himself blush under his scrutiny and he huffed an embarrassed laugh and looked ahead. “Pay attention to the road,” he said.

“Of course, dear,” Clint replied, but Bruce could hear the warmth in his words. He lifted Bruce’s hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against his knuckles before their joined hands settled together on the center console. 

Bruce watched the passing scenery as they drove. The highway didn’t seem to be terribly busy; it was a Tuesday afternoon, after all, well away from the normal rush hour traffic that seemed to plague New York City. Bruce didn’t think it would be too much of an issue out in this area; they were well away from major cities. The horizon was rolling hills and mountains, the occasional farm the only hint of civilization along the highway aside from the few others vehicles.

Even as he watched another farm disappear behind them, Bruce felt something in his chest loosen and he drew in a contented breath. Maybe Clint _had_ been right. It had been a long time since he had taken a break past the occasional two- or three-days from time to time. 

Getting to travel was just a perk.

No matter how bad those years of being a fugitive had been, there had always been something peaceful about parts of it. From time to time, he would hitch a ride with a kind stranger, just a chance to rest his aching feet and take in his surroundings, passing him by at different speeds. Watching grassy hills or living forests or rocky terrain pass him by from a perspective where he could observe and just enjoy it was something he had grown to treasure. 

Bruce reached his free hand down and clicked the button to roll down his window. The cabin of the car immediately was filled with the sound of rushing wind and the rustling of their paper grocery bags. He felt Clint’s hand on his twitch a little at the onslaught of new noises, but Bruce knew his hearing aids would adjust to the new sounds easily.

Instead, Bruce focused on the warm breeze against his face and arm, on the sunlight now hitting him directly. He rested his arm against the open window, reveling in the feeling of the wind against him. 

With the sun on his skin and the wind against him, he felt that knot in his chest grow that much looser and he was hit with a realization. It was less of a knot in his chest and more of an itch that this trip was scratching.

He hadn’t even realized it, but he had been getting antsy. He had been getting that itch to travel that he got from time to time since that had become his life after the accident. Staying in one place for too long made him anxious. It was why he took that trip the Christmas before last to Chile—he had started to feel trapped in New York. As grateful as he was for his new home within the tower, traveling was just something so deeply ingrained in him nowadays. Staying meant more time for people to find him, which meant people getting hurt. 

Those reasons didn’t hold up nowadays, but try showing that kind of logic to his emotions. It was all well and good to _know_ something and still _feel_ a certain way.

He had been getting that itch to run again. Maybe that had been why he had been pushing himself so much with work lately, to smother out those underlying feelings and focus on something else. 

Bruce blinked from his thoughts and focused on the present. That itch to run was being scratched now. He had the sun against his face. He had the wind pushing against his arm. He felt the rumble of the vehicle around him. 

He felt the warm hand in his.

He had his freedom, and he had someone to share it with this time. That thought brought warmth to his chest that had nothing to do with the sunlight and warm summer air coming in through the open window. 

Bruce smiled and gave Clint’s hand a squeeze. “Thank you for suggesting this,” he said over the wind.

Clint didn’t take his eyes off of the road, but he returned the squeeze with one of his own.


	3. Summer Reading

The sound of the front door being pushed opened made Bruce blink out of his thoughts. He had been sitting out on the front porch for a little bit now, watching the rain and the occasional bird fly by for shelter amongst the trees surrounding them. 

He had been ushered out of the kitchen by Clint and Natasha after he offered to help them make dinner, so he had come out here instead. The cabin had a lovely sheltered porch with multiple chairs, wooden loveseats, and a hanging swinging bench. There were a few hanging plants on hooks lining the porch, but not so much that it blocked the view.

Bruce looked over to find Tony coming out of the cabin to join him. He watched Tony come to a stop at the railing and look out over the driveway with a frown.

It took a moment before he noticed Bruce was also out there with him. Tony glanced over at him for a moment before he looked back over at the rain bouncing off of their rental cars. “Some first day of vacation, huh?” he asked.

Bruce frowned slightly. Tony was bored. When Tony glanced back at him, Bruce offered a mild shrug. “It’s supposed to clear up overnight,” he replied. “How was your teleconference?”

The look Tony shot him had Bruce biting back a smile.

“One less thing on Pepper’s checklist before she can join us,” Tony answered, looking back out at the driveway. He was quiet for a moment before he sighed and walked across the porch, dropping himself into the chair next to Bruce. “What have you been doing all day?” he asked. “Surely something more fun than Stark Industries teleconferences.”

Bruce shrugged again. “Took care of some work emails, handed off some projects to R&D and some of my interns, got the other rooms in order for when the others join us.”

Next to him, Tony snorted an unamused laugh. “Some vacation,” he said again.

“It’ll get better when the weather gets better,” Bruce said.

Tony let out a groan. “But that’s _later,”_ he whined. “I’d normally be working on something right now, but _someone_ had to make a _big show_ about how much we had been working. Pepper has forbid me from doing anything more than meetings and the necessary stuff for the company.”

“You needed the rest more than I did,” Bruce argued. “You had been going for longer than I had. Even Hulk could see that.”

“Don’t go telling Pepper that,” Tony demanded, shaking a threatening finger at him. “I’ll never hear the end of it. She’s been lording that picture of Big Green cuddling me over me.”

“You’ll live,” Bruce replied, shooing the finger away from him to pat him on the shoulder. He focused back out on the falling rain. “Besides, we really had been working too hard. This’ll be good for us.”

“Right,” Tony replied without enthusiasm.

Bruce couldn’t think of a way to continue the conversation, so they lapsed into silence. They sat together, watching the rain.

The silence lasted only a few moments before Tony looked back over at him. “But aren’t you _bored?”_

Bruce didn’t want to admit it, but he had left his phone and tablet inside to ensure he wouldn’t be tempted to get back to his work emails and get dragged back into work. He was a little bored, especially since Natasha and Clint had kicked him out of the kitchen. He had taken care of the chores around the cabin just to keep himself busy, but he had run out of things to do. 

Well, there was surely something inside they could find to do.

Bruce pushed himself to his feet and looked down at Tony. “Come on. Let’s explore this place.”

“We already did the walk-through,” Tony pointed out even as he stood up and followed Bruce inside.

The interior of the cabin was homey and clearly meant to be a woodsy vacation home. It was decorated with a mountain theme, with paintings of the woods in autumn colors, pictures of bears and deer framed and hanging, to a few different baskets of pinecones dotted throughout the home. It was meant to hold at least a few families, so the room situation was not going to be a problem. If anything, they would probably have rooms to spare.

There was the sound of cooking and low conversation coming from the kitchen, but Tony and Bruce avoided that and went down into the basement den. There was a large screen television against one wall and seating to comfortably seat everyone they had welcomed to join them. There was a closet off to the side that Bruce pulled open.

“Let’s see,” Bruce began, “we’ve got board games, puzzles…that looks like a guitar case… Anything in here spark your interest?”

“What board games?” Tony asked from across the room.

“Jenga, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit, Yahtzee…” Bruce started to list off. There were a lot of games in here. This would be good for the next rainy day they had. 

He was about to go on, but he heard a laugh come from behind him. Bruce looked away from the games and over at Tony, who was perusing the bookshelf hugging the wall on the other side of the room. 

As Bruce came up behind him to also take a look, Tony turned and shot him an amused grin. “Looks like someone did a search for _Books Everyone Should Read_ and just went to town,” he commented, gesturing at one of the shelves.

Bruce’s eyes skimmed the different titles on the shelves and huffed a laugh. _To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Jane Eyre, The Grapes of Wrath, Pride and Prejudice, The Jungle..._ “Just some light reading,” Bruce remarked.

“Just some fun summer reading,” Tony agreed, looking at the other books. “Who wouldn’t want to contemplate such heavy themes while on—Oh, hello,” Tony said distractedly as he pulled a book off of a different shelf. It was a thick tome and when Tony flipped it over to look at the back, Bruce saw it was the first book in the _A Song of Ice and Fire_ series. He hadn’t read it since the 90s, when it was first published. He knew it was a show nowadays, but he hadn’t seen it.

“You know, I’ve seen the show,” Tony began, flipping open the book, “but I’ve never actually read the books.”

“I’ve read the first few,” Bruce replied. “I can’t say how accurate the show is to the books, but I enjoyed reading them at the time.”

“Hm,” Tony replied. “There are some other series down on that shelf.”

Bruce looked at where Tony was pointing. He recognized a few and a few he didn’t. He was contemplating the _Lord of the Rings_ trilogy when he spotted the _Harry Potter_ series. He pulled the first one from the shelf. He had heard enough about the books from Natasha and Clint, but he had only ever read part of one of the books while on a bus in Argentina. He hadn’t even been sure which book it was, since the cover had been ripped off, along with a good chunk of the beginning. Something about holiday dances and mermaids…

“I guess it’s probably high time I read these,” Bruce mused.

“Bet you I can read my series faster than you read yours,” Tony replied with a grin.

Bruce huffed a laugh. “Your series isn’t even complete yet,” he pointed out.

“What, afraid you can’t finish yours before I finish mine?” Tony goaded, still grinning.

Bruce looked at the book in his hand. It looked like it was hardly over 200 pages. It hardly seemed like a fair bet, but Tony seemed eager. Besides, it got him smiling and gave him something to do until the weather cleared up and everyone else arrived. Who was he to deny Tony a little bit of competition.

“Alright, you’re on,” Bruce replied.

Tony beamed and started making his way back to the stairs. “You’re going down, Big Guy,” he said. 

“Okay,” Bruce replied, following along.

They made their way back out to the front porch. It was still raining, but it made for ambient white noise as they took their seats and started on their respective book. It was peaceful, and as Bruce stole a quick glance over at his friend, he saw that Tony was finally relaxing. It made Bruce smile quietly to himself.

After about half an hour, when he set the book aside and stood up, Tony looked up from his book. “Giving up already?” he asked.

“Hardly,” Bruce answered with a smile. “I’m going to make some tea. Want anything?”

“Coffee, if you don’t mind,” Tony answered, getting back to his book.

“I’m making you decaf,” Bruce replied.

Tony sighed and flopped a little bit more into his chair. “Bruce, how could you?”

Bruce held up his hands. “I’m not bringing Pepper’s wrath down on myself. It’s almost 6:30 and I’m not going to be blamed for getting you caffeinated this late in the day.” 

Tony’s answering groan followed him into the house, but Bruce was smiling. 

As he entered the kitchen, he spotted Clint chopping vegetables at the counter and Natasha standing at the stove, stirring something. They both looked over at him in unison as he walked into the room. Bruce held his hands up innocently and pointed to the pantry. “Just making some tea and coffee,” he said before they could say anything.

“Decaf?” Natasha asked.

“Of course,” Bruce answered. 

Natasha nodded once and turned her attention back to the stove. “Just checking,” she replied, like she wasn’t in cahoots with Pepper to make sure Tony got his sleep schedule back on track. 

Bruce passed by the stove and went about pulling out two mugs. There was a Keurig off to the side of the kitchen, where Bruce got Tony’s coffee going before filling the other mug from the tap to heat in the microwave. 

As everything was heating and brewing, Bruce gravitated to Clint’s side and let his hand rest on the small of his back. “Are you sure you don’t need a hand?” he offered again.

Clint smiled and leaned a little bit into the touch before looking over to Bruce. “We’re just about done with the prep. Everything just needs to roast and cook.”

“Shouldn’t be more than another 45 minutes or so,” Natasha offered.

Clint finished chopping the last bit of asparagus and dropped everything into a bowl. “What did you two find to do? I thought I heard you come in for a little bit.”

The microwave beeped and Bruce reluctantly stepped away from Clint. “We found some books downstairs. You’ll both be happy to know I’m finally reading _Harry Potter.”_

Clint immediately gave a shout of triumph and pumped his fist in the air. “At last! Let us know what you think. Natasha has some strong opinions about it.”

“And you don’t?” Natasha asked from the stove. 

“Stronger opinions about that than the _Game of Thrones_ series?” Bruce asked. He dropped a bag of peppermint tea into the hot water. “That’s what Tony’s reading.”

Natasha smiled and looked over at him. “There are a lot of fun conversations on the horizon,” she said.

Behind him, the Keurig went off, filling the mug with decaf coffee. Armed with both mugs, he looked back at Natasha and Clint. “Join us out on the porch when you’re done?” he asked, looking hopefully at Clint.

The smile Clint gave him was soft and sappy. “Of course,” he answered.

Bruce returned outside and set the mug of coffee on the little table next to Tony’s chair. As he sat down on one of the benches and set his own mug of tea off to the side, he took in the sound of rain, momentarily interrupted by the sound of Tony turning a page of his book. 

“Thanks, Big Guy,” Tony said, looking briefly over at him before getting back to the book.

Bruce only smiled and looked out at the rain again for a moment. He picked up his own book and opened it back up to where he had left off, settling in.

It was only a few minutes later that the front door opened again and Clint and Natasha joined them. Clint immediately curled up against Bruce and Bruce was happy to have him tuck under his arm and settle against him. He was also holding a book, something sci-fi if the ridiculous cover was anything to go by. Natasha was also cracking open a book from where she sat next to Tony. 

“That looks fun,” Bruce remarked with a grin, nodding down at Clint’s book.

Clint held the book out for them both to look at. There was a woman in a spacesuit swooning in an alien’s arms and what looked like lasers in the background. “Yeah,” Clint agreed, grinning. “Looks dumb.”

And so the four of them settled in for a quiet evening, listening to the rain and the flipping of pages from time to time. Bruce could feel when Clint tried to hold back a laugh at his book, and each time it made him smile. 

This was nice.


	4. Early Morning Walks

Bruce blinked awake slowly, unsure of what woke him up. The room was just starting to brighten with the predawn light and he could hear birds chirping outside. Clint was still curled up behind him, fast asleep, and Bruce had to admit, this was one of the nicest mornings he’d had in a while. 

He lay there for a few minutes, just savoring everything. It was so nice to have Clint there with him again. It had only been a little over seven months since they started dating, but Bruce had started getting used to falling asleep with another person beside him, hearing another person’s inhales and exhales that offset his own. It was comforting, to fall asleep with someone else nearby. 

Still, waking up with the break of dawn was hard-wired in his brain, a relic from his time on the run that he still hadn’t quite shaken yet.

Bruce carefully extracted himself from Clint’s hold without waking him up. The frown that briefly touched Clint’s face made Bruce smile, but he settled when Bruce gently rubbed his back. He was still healing from his mission, after all; he needed to rest. 

Once he was sure Clint was still asleep, Bruce changed and then snuck out of the room, carefully pulling the door closed behind him. The rest of the cabin was still quiet; he was likely the first person awake. It wasn’t even six in the morning yet, and they had all stayed up a little late chatting into the night after dinner.

Bruce made his way downstairs to the ground level and walked to the kitchen. He set the timer on the coffee maker and put the kettle on to make some tea. As he waited for the water to boil, he crossed the kitchen to the window that looked out over the back of the property, into the woods. Through the branches and leaves, he could see that it looked to be a clear sky. The rain had passed at last.

Armed with a cup of herbal tea, Bruce walked out to the front porch. There was a third car parked behind their rental cars that Bruce was surprised to see. He wondered when Steve and Bucky had arrived. It was definitely after they had gone to sleep last night and he didn’t remember hearing anything in the night.

He stood for a moment, taking in the morning chill. The air felt damp, but he knew that the dampness would burn off once the sun was well and truly up. There were a number of different sounds around him and the air smelled clean, earthy. 

It was so peaceful here.

Bruce took another moment to take a deep breath in before he settled in on one of the porch chairs and opened his book, waiting for the tea to cool.

By the time he had finished his tea, the sky was beyond its predawn greys and was now blue. He also didn’t hear anyone moving around inside. He reached the end of a chapter and closed the book, looking out over the yard and the driveway for a moment before he stood up. 

He set the book and the empty mug on the table next to the chair and stepped off of the porch and started walking. The air was filled with the sounds of different birds and insects. With each breeze, he could hear the rustling of leaves and the splatter of water droplets that had clung to the leaves and branches overnight. There was the crunch of gravel beneath his feet as he walked down the driveway and started making his way toward the main road.

As he walked, he looked around. There was a pond not too far off from the cabin, complete with a little dock that jutted out into the water. There was a shed behind the house that he wanted to take a look inside of at some point. There was a little creek that cut through the property and a little bridge it ran under, trickling happily with the extra water the rain provided yesterday. 

The gravel turned to packed dirt before it reached the main paved road. The driveway was a little under a mile long, cutting through the woods.

Bruce took all of this in as he strolled leisurely down the path. He had missed this. He enjoyed living in the tower in the city, he really did, but in those moments of loud city noises, of crowded sidewalks, he looked back on some of those quiet moments he had on the road. 

It wasn’t to say he didn’t love people. He loved helping people, loved the opportunity to provide assistance in any capacity he had to offer, the greater sense of belonging that came when standing with a community. There were just times where city living got to him. A break was nice.

His musings were put on hold when he heard the rapid sound of approaching footsteps. Hulk was immediately on alert and Bruce blinked from his thoughts, suddenly more aware of his surroundings and—

“Morning, Bruce!”

From around the tree line, Steve and Bucky were running—he couldn’t even describe it as a jog. They weren’t even out of breath.

Hulk snorted in his mind and rolled back over as Bruce heaved a small sigh, relaxing a little. “Morning, fellas,” he greeted them. “How long have you been here?”

Both Bucky and Steve had slowed down until they were walking toward Bruce. They were in loose workout clothes, Steve in his traditional sweats and t-shirt and Bucky in the same with a jacket and a single glove to hide away his metallic arm. 

After Tony had removed the HYDRA piece of technology and later wired a new arm to him, Bucky was still adjusting to it, as well as everything else. He had good days where the sight of his replaced arm wouldn’t send him into a spiraling cascade of thoughts that triggered flashbacks or worse, and then there were others where he couldn’t stand to look at it. 

Looked like it was one of those latter days. 

Steve glanced over at Bucky for a brief moment before looking back at Bruce. “We, uh, got in a few hours ago,” he said.

Meaning they had driven overnight. It was at least a four hour drive here from Washington DC. 

Now that Bruce was looking a little more closely, he could see some of that exhaustion on them. It must have been a rough night, if they decided to bail on Sam in the middle of the night to make the drive here. He thought they were supposed to stay in DC until the weekend; there was some VA thing that they had been preparing for.

But Bruce knew all too well that plans could change at the drop of a hat, and all you could do was adjust and make do.

Bruce offered them a small smile. “Well, don’t let me keep you from your morning run.”

“We’re winding down,” Steve replied, looking grateful that Bruce hadn’t pressed. 

“The kettle on the stove should still have some warm water,” Bruce replied. He glanced over at Bucky. “We made sure to grab a box of that tea that you like.”

Bucky glanced at him briefly, his jaw looking tight, before he glanced ahead down the path again with a stiff nod of thanks. Yeah, it looked like it was one of the rough days.

Steve shot Bruce another grateful look before he lightly tapped Bucky on the arm. “Race you back?” Steve questioned hopefully.

Bruce saw a flash of light in Bucky’s eyes before, wordlessly, Bucky took off at a sprint down the path toward the house. Steve barked a laugh and immediately took off after him. “You jerk!” he called after him.

The two of them disappeared around the curve of trees in an instant and Bruce chuckled to himself. Maybe today wasn’t such a bad day after all.

Bruce continued on down to the main road, moving at a leisurely speed and in no mood to hurry back. The tree line broke up a little at the road and he looked off to see the sun rising over the hills. The sky was a clear blue and any clouds that had lingered overnight were now long gone. The droplets of rainwater that clung to the nearby foliage sparkled like jewels in the morning light. 

He stayed there for a few more minutes, just taking in the breathtaking view, before he heaved in another deep breath of the cool morning air and turned back around. There were some wildflowers he stopped to look at along the way, but he kept his pace slow as he walked, just taking all of this in.

By the time he got back, it looked like Clint and Natasha were awake. They were sitting out on the dock on the little pond, both armed with steaming mugs and chatting quietly to each other.

Bruce paused for only a moment to watch them, but Clint glanced over and the smile that lit up his face had Bruce feeling warm all over. His stomach gave a giddy lurch and he couldn’t help but smile back. 

So when Clint gave him an over-exaggerated wave to come over, Bruce couldn’t help but obey.

“Hey,” Clint greeted him as Bruce walked up the dock and sat down next to Clint. “Taking in the sights?”

“Something like that,” Bruce replied, smiling as Clint laid an arm across his shoulders and gently pulled him in. He presented the small purple flower he had plucked. “Here.”

Clint smiled brightly and pressed a kiss against Bruce’s cheek. 

Natasha fondly rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee as Bruce tucked the flower behind Clint’s ear.


	5. Fair

Bruce was just wrapping up a meditation session with Hulk when he heard footsteps behind him along the wooden planks making up the dock. He pulled in a deep breath and straightened up just slightly from his seated position. 

He opened his eyes and glanced over his shoulder to find Clint standing there. It was so nice to see him dressed down; he was in a faded t-shirt that pulled across his chest and shoulders if he moved just right, and his jeans hugged his thighs a little as he squatted down to sit next to Bruce. “Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” Bruce answered, relaxing and unfolding his legs to dangle over the side of the dock, his feet hanging a few inches above the water. 

“You got plans tonight?” Clint asked, mimicking Bruce’s posture.

“No, I don’t think so,” Bruce replied. “Why?”

Clint smiled and leaned a little against Bruce. “You wanna go somewhere? Just you and me?” he asked, his voice soft and almost hopeful.

A smile immediately found its way to Bruce’s lips. “You asking me out?” he asked in a low, mildly teasing voice.

“Yeah,” Clint replied, completely honest, and Bruce found himself losing his teasing little smile to just stare at him. “I mean,” Clint hedged, looking off toward the ripples in the pond for a moment, “we haven’t really had a date night in a while. I figured it might be nice, you know?”

It was true. Their last date had been sometime in April, before things started kicking up and their schedules got so swamped. Lately, most of their evenings together, where they had actually been together, had consisted of cooking something together and then falling asleep with each other. Still a lovely time, but with the constraints of work, it was really all the energy they had really had for weeks.

Bruce smiled and leaned over to kiss him. “I’d love to,” he answered softly against his lips.

Clint’s answering smile was blinding.

==

“Where to first?” Clint asked, smiling over at Bruce.

The fair before them was a little local festival, complete with a few carnival rides, food stands, a stage with musicians, and what looked like a petting zoo. There were families and groups of friends and couples all over and the sound of laughter and conversation was a dull roar. The mountainous horizon was dotted with the different rides, including a Ferris wheel.

Bruce took all of this in before glancing back over at Clint, who was looking at him with a contented smile on his face. Bruce felt his stomach do a somersault and he instinctively smiled back before he linked arms with Clint. “Let’s explore.”

Together, they walked into the small town festival. 

“How did you hear this was going on?” Bruce asked as they dodged around a large family trying to keep up with their eager kids. 

“I may have done some research,” Clint answered. When Bruce glanced over, he cracked. “Okay, Tasha helped me a little. We looked at some of the festivals and fairs happening this weekend and this one looked like the best. I think she and the rest of the guys went to one happening further off.”

A warm feeling went through him and he promised himself to do something nice for Natasha while they were out of New York. She was always looking out for everyone else. 

Bruce smiled and leaned a little into Clint’s side. “Well, I’ll have to come up with something for our next date night,” Bruce mused aloud.

Clint leaned a little more against him and ducked his head a little, bringing their faces closer. “Oh yeah? You gonna sweep me off my feet?”

“I’m going to certainly try,” Bruce answered, pressing a quick kiss against Clint’s cheek. “But that’s next time. Anything you had your eye on when you were researching this place?”

Clint had a sappy smile on his face, but he turned his attention forward and pulled Bruce along with him. “I’m winning you something.”

Bruce laughed at the determination in his voice and allowed himself to be pulled along.

There were a number of different games. There was one with water guns and targets, ring toss games, games to knock a stack of bottles over, and several children’s games. The one that caught Clint’s attention involved popping balloons with darts.

They stood back for a moment to let the couple in front of them play and Clint gestured to the different prizes hanging up around the stand. “Anything catch your eye?” he asked, grinning over at Bruce.

“Hmm…” Bruce made a show at looking at the different stuffed animals and prizes hanging up.

He felt a sudden lurch within him and a burst of _need_ when he paused on one. He exhaled a shaky breath like he had just taken a hit to the chest. When Clint’s eyes shot to him, looking concerned, Bruce pointed to the stuffed animal his gaze was locked on. “Hulk really wants that one.”

Clint followed Bruce’s gaze to the toy in question. “Sushi cat?”

The stuffed animal was large, easily the height of a small child. It was a round oblong stuffed animal of a cartoon white cat that made up the rice of the sushi. There was a strip of some sort of meat on its back, held in place by a strip of seaweed. It was frankly adorable, and Hulk was enamored.

_‘Sushi cat,’_ Hulk repeated in reverence in Bruce’s head, and Bruce huffed an almost-giddy laugh. 

“That’s the one,” Bruce confirmed.

Clint grinned and lightly elbowed Bruce’s arm. “Tell Green Bean I’ll win him that, no problem. But what do _you_ want?”

Bruce was feeling the giddy aftereffects of Hulk’s excitement as it rippled through his consciousness, but he kept looking at the different prizes. There were some cartoon characters he didn’t recognize, different types of teddy bears, snakes in an assortment of shiny fabrics and colors. It was quite the display of different toys.

His eyes came to a stop on a little plush rhino and he felt himself smile. “That one’s cute,” he commented a bit more steadily, pointing.

Clint expertly found what Bruce was pointing at. He grinned. “Done and done.”

The couple in front of them moved off with their prize and Clint stepped up. “Hey there,” he said brightly and Bruce, who had hung back a little, smiled quietly to himself.

“Hello!” the gamekeeper said with a cheerful smile adorning her face. “Pop a balloon and win a prize! Three dollars for four tries.”

“You got it,” Clint replied with a smile, pulling out his wallet and handing over the money.

The gamekeeper laid out four darts on the counter separating them and stood back.

Clint picked up the first dart and weighed it in his hand as a smirk crossed his face. He shot a quick look over at Bruce, confident and bold, and Bruce felt his something in his core flip a little. In easy, self-assured movements, Clint lined up his first shot and threw the dart.

A bright blue balloon popped immediately.

“Well done!” the gamekeeper cheered, but Clint had moved on to the next dart, hardly taking the time to line up the shot before he threw.

Within seconds, there were an additional three _pops!_ The rubbery ruins of the four different balloons hung on the dartboard limply, conquered.

Bruce quietly applauded.

Clint put his hands on his hips and grinned over at Bruce, looking immensely proud of himself, before he looked back at the gamekeeper. “Can I play another round? I have to win a prize for someone else.”

The gamekeeper, thoroughly gobsmacked, seemed to regain her senses at Clint’s question. She pasted her smile back on, though she did look completely impressed. “That was…incredible,” she said a little breathlessly, hurrying to retrieve the four darts. 

“Aw, thanks,” Clint said with a pleased grin, though he smiled back at Bruce as he said it. 

Bruce snorted a laugh and put his hands in his pockets. “Showoff,” he said fondly.

Three more dollars were handed over, and in a matter of seconds, there was another series of _pops_ and the remains of four additional balloons hung loosely from the board. 

Bruce smiled at the amazed little _wow_ the gamekeeper breathed.

Clint beamed and lifted his arm, motioning for Bruce to come over. “Which ones did you want again?” he asked, like he didn’t already know.

Bruce huffed a little laugh and couldn’t help but be drawn in. He tucked himself against Clint’s side, relishing the different points of contact as Clint rested his arm across Bruce’s shoulder and pulled him in. “Should we have maybe waited until the end of the night to do this?” he asked with a smile. “We’re going to have to lug these around with us, now.”

“You can get your hands stamped at the entrance,” the gamekeeper offered helpfully, looking at the two of them, still a little awed. “You’ll be able to get back in as long as your hands are stamped.”

“Oh, sweet,” Clint said, grinning. He glanced over at Bruce. “Sushi cat and rhino?”

“Sushi cat and rhino,” Bruce confirmed.

The gamekeeper quickly retrieved the two prizes in question. She handed them over with a bit of reverence. Clint handed both prizes to Bruce and they wandered off to let the next set of competitors try their luck.

Bruce held the sushi cat toy at arms-length to get a better look at it and he felt Hulk’s delight. It was a dizzying feeling, but it was absolutely welcome. He then looked at the comparatively small rhino plushy and he could feel the warm smile that crossed his lips. 

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Of course,” Clint replied simply, but with so much warmth that Bruce couldn’t help but press a quick kiss to his mouth. As they broke apart, Clint hummed a little in dazed contentment before he continued. “Gotta use my powers for something other than combat every now and then.”

“Right,” Bruce said with a smile.

“You’re right, though,” Clint went on. “Should we drop these off at the car and then keep going?”

Bruce hummed in thought for all of a moment. “Maybe after I win you something.”

Clint immediately turned a delighted smile over at him. “Oh yeah?” he said. His smile then turned teasing. “You gonna win me something with science?”

There was a challenge in those words.

Bruce simply quirked an eyebrow at him before scanning the other game stands, looking for something he could indeed use his intellect in. He knew that most carnival games were rigged; sometimes it took raw talent to beat them, but knowing the trick to them and coming at it like a puzzle was a different way to success.

Bruce had always liked puzzles.

His eyes lit upon a stand and he smiled. “This way,” he said, linking arms with Clint and pulling him along. Clint seemed happy to be dragged with him.

“The basket toss?” Clint asked as they came to a stop. 

“Yep,” Bruce replied. The game was simple. There was a board set vertically and two baskets glued to it so their openings were facing out toward the fair-goers. “See any prizes you like?”

He could feel Clint’s gaze on him for a lingering moment, but Clint finally took a look at the different toys and stuffed animals hanging up. He looked for a few seconds before he pointed. “Bird,” he said with such eagerness it had Bruce laughing. 

“Which one?” Bruce asked.

Clint stepped closer and kept pointing. “The cardinal,” he said.

The toy in question was a stuffed red bird, maybe about six inches long. It had a little baseball cap on that might have had a sports team logo on it. 

Bruce nodded and handed the sushi cat and rhino toys over to Clint to hold. “Sure thing,” he said, stepping up.

The gamekeeper provided three whiffle balls for three dollars. Land one ball in the basket and win a prize.

Bruce picked up the first whiffle ball, testing the weight of the thing before he eyed the distance between where he was standing and the basket. The ball in his hand was slightly scuffed, probably from years of use, but that would work to his advantage here, since it would cause a different amount of friction than a smooth object would.

After a few more moments of careful calculation, Bruce threw the ball. The whiffle ball hit the inside rim of the basket and traveled along the side of the basket toward the back of the basket. It rolled a little before it settled at the back of the basket.

Bruce smiled.

Behind him, Clint let out a whistle.

Bruce ducked his head with an embarrassed little laugh, feeling his face heat slightly, before he picked up the next whiffle ball.

The next two tosses came to the same result and the gamekeeper offered his congratulations with the prized cardinal toy.

Bruce took it with a quiet thank you and turned to Clint, who was staring at him, looking deeply impressed and, if Bruce didn’t know any better, a little turned on. Completely unabashed, Clint stepped forward and kissed him. It was brief, but it held promises for later.

“Confident is a _good_ look on you,” Clint breathed as they parted.

Bruce couldn’t help but laugh as he felt his face flush again. “Carnival games get you going?” he asked softly.

“Seeing you ace them because I made a joke about you using science to win gets me going,” Clint corrected him with a wolfish grin. He quickly shifted the two toys in his arms to one side to free up his arm. He tucked himself into Bruce’s side, wrapping that arm around Bruce’s back to settle his hand on his hip. They started making their way back to the entrance. “Wanna explain? I could practically see the calculations going through your mind.”

Bruce laid his arm across Clint’s shoulders, perfectly content. “It’s just playing with conservation of energy and conservation of momentum,” he began as they walked. 

==

The rest of their evening was spent exploring the rest of the fair. The band that was playing by the time they got to the stage was a bluegrass group and they stood back to watch parents attempt to dance with their kids. They split a plate of funnel cake as they wandered around the section devoted to showcasing the different entries for the multitude of different competitions happening over the weekend. 

All the while, they chatted about anything and everything that had happened over the past few months that they hadn’t really had a chance to discuss before now. Clint talked about how some of his missions had gone lately; it was less about the work and more about weird happenings that had occurred while he was on the road. Bruce told him about some of the different projects that had been completed as well as the progress being made with Hulk. He also shared stories from interactions with either Tony or his interns.

It was in that nebulous area between sunset and twilight when they made their way to the Ferris wheel. Bruce hadn’t even been aware that they had been heading that way, absorbed as he was in the retelling of a story. When they stopped walking, Bruce took note of their surroundings and saw they were in line for the Ferris wheel.

As he glanced back at Clint, Clint shot him a happy grin. “Figured this would be a nice way to call it a night,” he said by way of explanation.

Just the sight of him smiling freely for the first time in what felt like months had Bruce feeling tingly all over and breathless. Sure, he was still slightly bruised and the cut on his forehead was still visible, but he looked well-rested and _happy_. It was breathtaking to witness.

Bruce smiled back. “Of course,” he replied, unlinking their arms and taking hold of Clint’s hand.

They easily got their own cabin and within a few minutes, they were high above the fair, looking at the different lights below. The sun was setting to the west and the stars were already coming out to the east. The mountains in the distance were cast in gorgeous lights from the last beams of sunlight, which spilled across the grassy hills to this small-town fair. 

It was beautiful.

And then there was Clint sitting next to him, cast in the different lights of an ending day, almost glowing with the last sunbeams the sun was to give this day. He was looking over everything there was to see, such a look of contentment on his face and an easiness in his posture and Bruce’s chest felt full to the point of bursting. That tingly and breathless sensation had come back in full force, and the feeling was a little intoxicating. 

They were still holding hands.

Clint then looked away from their surroundings and over at Bruce, and Bruce could see the clear adoration in his gaze, and Bruce knew he was returning that same gaze, that same adoration. 

Without a word, they curled out together, snuggling up and watching the sunset.

“We need to do this more often,” Clint murmured quietly.

“I absolutely agree,” Bruce responded just as softly. He tipped his head just slightly and kissed the side of Clint’s neck. “More date nights,” he said, pressing another kiss to Clint’s throat.

Clint hummed and tipped his head back slightly, giving Bruce easier access to his neck and jaw. He carded his fingers through Bruce’s hair. “You get to pick what we do next,” he said, his voice slightly breathy in a way that made Bruce almost grin proudly. He pulled lightly on Bruce’s hair to bring them face to face.

“I’ll think of something,” Bruce replied before Clint kissed him soundly on the lips. 

Clint hummed into the kiss and broke free to tip their foreheads together. “That’s next time, though,” he said. He opened his eyes and Bruce found himself staring into Clint’s blue eyes, getting lost in their depths. Clint smiled. “The night is still young,” he pointed out.

“Oh?” Bruce said, playing along. “You’ve got more plans?”

“The fair was just the start,” Clint replied, “but we could hang out here a little longer, if you want. Or there’s option B,” he said, kissing him again.

“And what’s option B?” Bruce asked between kisses.

“We head back to the hotel I booked us for tonight a little early,” Clint answered with a suggestive smile.

The choice was obvious, but Bruce made a point to think about it while he pressed another kiss to Clint’s smiling lips, each kiss growing more and more heated. “As much fun as the fair is,” Bruce finally began, pulling back to meet Clint’s gaze again, “I think option B holds some promise.”

Clint’s answering smile was blinding.

They settled against each other, trading lazy kisses or just looking out over the landscape or at each other as their cabin got close and closer to the ground. Once they were off, their hands came together again and they walked leisurely across the fairgrounds toward the exit, the scents of fried foods and the sound of live music and laughter following in their wake.


	6. Farmers Market

“Okay, it should be this exit coming up,” Bruce said, glancing up from the GPS on his phone and to the highway in front of them.

Clint got into the right-hand lane and then rested his hand on the back of Bruce’s seat, glancing over with a smile. “Did you make a list?” he asked.

“Of course,” Bruce replied, picking up said list. He added _ginger_ to the bottom and looked it over. “I’m planning on making some curry while we’re here and that grocery store didn’t have all of the ingredients.”

“Ooh, do you have cremini mushrooms on there?” Clint asked eagerly.

“Not specifically,” Bruce replied after confirming that he had _mushrooms._

“Add those. Those are great on the grill,” Clint said, turning on his blinker and pulling the car into the exit ramp.

Bruce dutifully added _cremini mushrooms_ to his list. “Are we planning on firing up the grill in the next few days, then?”

“Oh yeah,” Clint answered with another smile. “Weather is supposed to be awesome for the next week or so. It’d be a shame not to take advantage of it, especially since more people are supposed to be coming throughout the weekend.”

Bruce hummed and looked up from his list to look out at the countryside they were driving through. It was another gorgeous morning; the sky was blue and there was the occasional puffy white cloud that dotted the skyline.

They had checked out of their hotel room around 9:30 that morning. In the lobby, there had been brochures about different attractions in western Virginia. While there had been a few that had caught Bruce’s eye, it was the farmers market happening in a small town not too far off of the highway on their way back to the cabin that sparked his interest.

So Bruce had grabbed the brochure, looked up the address on his phone, and now they were on their way.

It wasn’t too far of a drive from the highway to the little town, but it was certainly scenic. There were farms dotting the grassy hills, with different crops and livestock. From a distance, Bruce could see horses, cows, goats, and at one point he thought he saw an alpaca. 

Within ten minutes of exiting the highway, Clint slowed down as they entered the small town. It had an old-town vibe to it; some buildings had certainly seen better days, but it was still a bustling little place. There was a streamer hanging over the main street that advertised the local high school graduation, happening next weekend, and the different lampposts along the street had baskets of flowers hanging from them. 

The farmers market was set up in a nearby park. Clint parallel parked the vehicle off of the main street and they got out to walk the rest of the way. 

The market was already bustling. This was one of the weekly markets that only set up shop on Saturdays, so Bruce was pleased they were nearby for it. Though honestly, he was sure there were several other markets like this set up between here and their cabin, but this one had looked nice.

There were dozens and dozens of stands and, like Bruce and Clint, it seemed to attract a lot of folks from outside of town. There were tons of people everywhere; there were some wicker baskets to collect their purchases, and there were others with little wagons they were pulling their kids and purchases in. 

Clint lightly nudged Bruce and pointed toward a stand not too far from the entrance. “It looks like they’re selling bags. First stop?”

“Oh good,” Bruce said with a relived smile. “I was beginning to think we’d have to make multiple trips back to the car.”

Clint smiled and laid his arm across Bruce’s shoulders, leading the charge into the fray. Bruce wrapped his arm across Clint’s back and rested his hand on Clint’s hip. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when they returned to New York and their busy schedules; Bruce was really enjoying having so much contact with Clint these past few days.

After purchasing two bags (they were feeding most of the Avengers and some; they’d be making lots of purchases today), they returned to the front of the park to start at the first stand on the left side. Unspoken, it seemed they had agreed to start on one side and then loop back on the other on their way out. 

The first stand held different fruits and preserves. There were some pretty odd flavor combinations, including an onion jam that Clint was desperately curious about. “I’ve never even considered a savory jam before,” Clint had explained at Bruce’s look.

And so they made their rounds, picking up different fruits and vegetables and chatting with the different vendors along the way. Bruce was pleased when they found ginger early on, along with some fresh herbs. Clint made a promise to one vendor that they’d be back to pick up two watermelons before they left. 

They had just picked up the cremini mushrooms and were in a discussion about different grilled foods they had tried over the years in different countries. They had had their fair share of different types of grilled meats, but then they strayed away from meat and into the different types of fruits and vegetables.

“A grilled plum?” Clint repeated as they stopped at a fruit stand that, coincidentally, had peaches and plums and nectarines to sell. 

“Yeah,” Bruce replied with a smile. “It pairs really well with grilled meats.”

“Huh,” Clint said, clearly thinking it over. “I guess I just never really thought about fruit on the grill before.”

Bruce picked up a collection of plums; he knew Bucky liked them, and now they were going to be experimenting with grilled fruit. “Any that you’re curious to try, now that you’re thinking about it?” he asked.

Clint made a humming thinking noise that made Bruce smile, but didn’t immediately offer an answer. Bruce was content to let him think about it. He had tried a few over the years while in other countries, so he already had a few ideas. 

They picked up some of the other fruit available at the stand before moving on to the next, which had a collection of different pickled vegetables. 

Bruce was examining a jar of pickled okra when Clint spoke up. “I’m curious about watermelon,” Clint said at length.

Bruce smiled over at him. “Let’s grab a third one, then.”

They continued their round of the farmers market, picking up the different things on Bruce’s list but also anything that caught their eye. There was the purchase of pickled asparagus that Bruce was interested to try as well as some honey from local hives. Clint had his onion jam and a peach chili sauce he wanted to experiment with. 

By the time they reached the final stand, their two bags were full. All told, it might last a few days, with the amount of people staying at the cabin over the weekend. They had grabbed some extra, just in case Thor returned from Asgard and found the note they left for him, since Tony and Bruce hadn’t figured out the intergalactic communication issue yet. They hoped it was enough to last the weekend, at the very least.

They made their way back to the farmer Clint had promised to purchase watermelons from, who was impressed by the sight of their full bags. “You fellas planning on feeding an army?” he asked with an amused grin as he rung them up.

“Just about,” Clint replied. He had two of the watermelons, each held against under his arms and against his sides. His bag was looped over one shoulder and was resting against his back. 

Bruce had the other bag looped over his shoulder, too, but he had a free hand to pay the man in charge of the stand. “That’s pretty generous, considering how few of us there are in comparison,” he added. 

The farmer laughed and handed him his change. “Come on back and see us again,” he said with a friendly smile.

“Thank you,” they both said as they made their way out of the farmers market.

It was while they were driving back to the highway that Bruce and Clint’s phones _ding_ -ed with a message notification. Bruce unlocked his phone and saw it was a message from Tony. He opened the message and found that it wasn’t a text, but a photo. He immediately grinned. “Thor found our note,” he announced.

The picture was a selfie of Tony in a pair of sunglasses, posing in front of Thor, who was, for whatever reason, shirtless. He was flexing and it would have been an imposing sight, were it not for the goofy grin on his face. His hair was up in a bun and he also had a pair of sunglasses on and he honestly looked delighted. Tony’s face in the foreground was stoic, but he was flashing a peace-sign.

Clint barked a laugh when he stole a quick look at Bruce’s phone. “Well, I’m glad we grabbed extra stuff at the farmers market, then,” he commented.

“Maybe he’ll try your onion jam with you,” Bruce replied.

“Ooooh, there’s a thought,” Clint said, mischievousness in his voice. “I bet I can totally tell him it’s a Midgardian delicacy and he’d try it.”

“Thor would try it because he likes trying new things,” Bruce replied. “I think he knows you well enough by now to not get tricked.”

“We’ll see,” Clint replied in a sing-song voice, but he was smiling, and just the sight of him made Bruce smile as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, though. If you get the chance, grill up a plum. It's absolutely delicious.


	7. Cookout

“Do you need a hand with anything, Bruce?”

Bruce looked up from the cutting board and glanced over to see Pepper. She was probably the most dressed-down Bruce had ever seen her. She was wearing a pair of cut-off jean shorts and a tank-top. Her hair was up in a bun and a few strands of strawberry blonde hair hung around her face in little wisps.

Bruce smiled. She looked relaxed already, which was nice. She had gotten to the cabin yesterday afternoon, after Clint and Bruce had returned from their overnight trip, and it had been obvious immediately that she had needed a break. She had been in California for two straight weeks, and before that she had been in and out of meetings with the Board of Directors to get a new project greenlighted. She had been overworked for too long.

So it was a relief to see her embrace the opportunity for a vacation with open arms. 

“You should be relaxing,” Bruce told her with a smile. 

“If that’s your argument, then everyone should be relaxing and nothing would get done,” Pepper replied. She looked over the different things that needed to still be washed and cut. “Let me help so then we can _both_ relax.”

Bruce huffed a laugh and looked at the other things that needed to be done. “If you want to wash off the lettuce and start cutting that up, that’d be great,” he said. 

She smiled in a satisfied manner and patted him lightly on the shoulder. “Thank you for not being stubborn,” she said before plucking up the head of romaine lettuce and moving to the sink.

“Oh, of course,” Bruce replied with a grin as he got back to slicing tomatoes. He glanced back at her and finally caught sight of the back of her head. Her hair wasn’t just up in a bun—there was what looked like an upside down braid that led up to the bun. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a braid that goes _up_ a person’s head before,” Bruce began, staring.

Pepper glanced back at him. She grinned and ran her hand over the back of her head, twisting to show it to him. “Thor and I did each other’s hair,” she said by way of explaining.

“Ah,” Bruce said with a knowing nod. 

With that, they got to work, chopping the different toppings for burgers and vegetables to go on kabobs. The bamboo skewers had been soaking for hours now, so they would be all set to go on the grill without burning up. As they worked, they caught each other up on what had happened since they had last really had a chance to chat. Bruce tried to keep the conversation away from work for the good of both of them, but when you realize that you’ve only been working for the past few months, it’s kind of hard to not talk about. 

They were just wrapping up, Pepper telling him about the meeting with the Board that had gone long because there had been an extended debate on the profitability of this new project, when Thor came in from the back deck. 

“The time for grilling is about to commence!” he declared, breaking into Pepper’s story with ease. He also looked relaxed, which was nice. Thor had been overworked, too, between his princely duties back home, maintaining a long-distance relationship, and his general Avenger duties. He had been very excited by the prospect of a relaxing few days.

Pepper and Bruce stared at him for a moment before Bruce finished scooping up the sliced bell peppers into a bowl. “Great, we’re just about finished in here.”

“Most excellent,” Thor said with an approving nod and a bright smile. 

“Thor, show Bruce your hair,” Pepper said.

Thor immediately grinned and did a quick 180, putting his hands on his hips and displaying his up do proudly. “Behold!” he said. His hair had two different braids, starting at the top of his head and going down the sides of his head to gather into a bun on the back of his head. 

Bruce nodded approvingly. “Very nice,” he said. “You two should do each other’s hair more often.”

Thor and Pepper both smiled at that.

Together, the three of them started taking the different bowls and plates of cut vegetables and raw meat outside. The back deck of the cabin was fairly large, set up with a few picnic tables as well as a large grill. There were benches and a few chairs that hugged the banister around the deck. There was a decently sized backyard that backed up to the edge of the woods.

At one of the picnic tables, Natasha and Bucky were having a quiet conversation. They both immediately paused when the three of them came out of the cabin. Natasha looked them over before she lightly tapped Bucky’s arm and stood up. She turned to the backyard. “Look alive, boys,” she called out.

Bruce glanced in the direction of her call and found Steve, Tony, and Clint examining the little shed Bruce had spotted a few days ago. They all glanced back at the deck at the sound of Natasha’s voice. At the sight of Thor, Bruce, and Pepper carrying stuff, they quickly abandoned the shed and came to the deck to help out. 

Within about a minute, the rest of the dishes of ingredients were outside. 

Clint sidled up to Bruce as the others looked over the different foodstuffs to put on the bamboo skewers. “Why didn’t you come grab me?” he asked. “You know I would have helped cut everything up.”

Bruce smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “I know,” he reassured him. “You looked like you were having fun catching up with everyone, though.”

Clint looked like he wanted to press his point a little more, but he also couldn’t very well deny that he _had_ been enjoying catching up with Thor and everyone else. He instead made a noise of faux-frustration as he gave Bruce a hug. “You’re too good to me,” he said.

That floaty feeling came back to him and Bruce sunk into the embrace. “It’s no more than what you do for me,” he replied softly. He pulled back to kiss him one more time before they broke apart. “Now come on, Thor declared it’s time to start grilling.”

They joined the rest of the group over by the picnic tables. Thor had commandeered the plate of burger patties and chicken breasts, which were already cooking away on the grill. 

Natasha smiled as they approached and handed them each a damp bamboo skewer. “You guys picked up quite the assortment of vegetables yesterday,” she commented. 

“We knew who we were feeding,” Bruce replied, prompting laughter from the group.

They easily settled in with everyone else and went about making up some different vegetable kabobs for the group to enjoy. Thor came and went from the table, taking the completed skewers and the occasional piece of uncooked bell pepper to pop into his mouth before returning to the grill. 

It had been a while since the six Avengers had been together for a bit of downtime. They were still missing some of their friends, but Sam had texted to say he would stop by tomorrow, after the weekend VA event wrapped up. Rhodey was on an assignment at present, but he promised Tony and Pepper he’d try to make it for a weekend. Jane was in Europe at the moment with her crew and likely wouldn’t be able to get away, so Thor was going to visit them while he was Earth-side.

But this was so nice, Bruce thought as he listened to Tony and Steve playfully bicker about just about any topic that came up. He caught Bucky fondly rolling his eyes at Steve more than once. Clint and Natasha had resorted to throwing vegetable chunks at one another with scary accuracy instead of asking for things to be passed to them. Pepper was seated next to Tony, adding her own input into the bickering match. 

Bruce watched it all with a fond smile and a feeling of contentedness coursing through him. He had missed this. He had missed this _desperately._ He had been alone for so long while he was on the run, and when the Avengers had first come together, it was a chance at something new, something different. It was a chance to be with people again. First with Tony with his easy friendship, then with Pepper, then with the rest of the Avengers as they eventually started flocking to the Tower. 

And then with Clint.

It had sort of snuck up on him. He had believed for so long that he would never have this again, that when he realized it had happened, he had been so breathless with happiness that he had been proven wrong, which had been swiftly followed by blinding terror that it could just as easily be taken away again. 

But time and time again, these people—his colleagues, his friends, his family—had proven him wrong. It had been over three years since he had met this group of people and it still amazed him that he had grown so attached to all of them. 

The past few months had only solidified it for him. With everyone gone so much, that loneliness had started to creep in again. He knew it had weighed on Clint. He saw how it weighed on Tony. 

So just getting to see everyone together again for the first time in months when they weren’t all wounded and exhausted from a battle was amazing. Bruce was content to sit back and watch everyone laugh together for a moment of joy and happiness. He couldn’t remember the last time they had been together like this. Maybe the holidays?

Bruce was pulled from his thoughts when a stray piece of zucchini hit him in the face. He managed to catch it before it landed on the deck and before Clint threw his arm around him and pulled him in, laughing.

“Real great throw, there, Tasha,” Clint managed to say between laughs. He only laughed harder when she flipped him off.

Effectively back in the present, Bruce rolled his eyes and added the piece of zucchini to a skewer. “You’re both children,” he said, but even he could hear the fondness in his rebuke.

Clint certainly didn’t care. He only pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before he beamed a mushroom at Natasha, who flawlessly caught it.

Across the table, Bucky caught his eye with a small smirk. “Nice catch,” he said.

“Thank you,” Bruce replied, smiling. He was surprised he had caught it at all. “I’d hate to see this go to waste.”

Bucky watched as Thor didn’t even bother to try being stealthy as he stole a cherry tomato and popped it into his mouth. As Thor walked back to the grill with the next set of kabobs, Bucky looked back at Bruce. “I don’t think you need to be worried about that,” he commented blandly, though there was a hint of a smile on his face.

Bruce felt himself smile at that. “That’s a fair point,” he replied. 

“Alright, friends,” Thor called triumphantly from the other side of the deck, “the grilled meats are ready! The vegetables will be finished presently, and then we shall experiment with the grilled fruits.”

“Grilled fruits?” Steve repeated, sounding confused. 

Clint grinned at him. “That’s just was I said,” he answered. “Bruce says they’re really good, particularly grilled plums.”

“Hence the experiment,” Bruce added. “I didn’t realize it wasn’t a common thing.”

He jumped a little when Thor clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Anything that is roasted over an open flame is a good thing, indeed,” he said sagely. He then grinned at the group. “Now gather your plates. It is time we feast.”


	8. Hiking

“This shall be most excellent, dear friends.”

Bruce and Clint finished pulling their backpacks on and glanced ahead to where Thor was standing at the shelter where the parking lot met the main road. There was a sign there with a map of the trail as well as some helpful dos and don’ts along the way (there were a fair amount of don’ts, Bruce didn’t fail to notice). 

Clint closed the trunk to the rental car. “It’ll be more excellent when the rest of the group gets here,” he called back. He looked over at Bruce. “I can’t believe Natasha didn’t run that yellow light.”

“She has Steve with her,” Bruce pointed out, which made Clint snort a laugh. 

They had decided to find a good hiking trail last night. There were certainly longer and more difficult ones around, being in close proximity to an entire mountain range, but they had agreed that this one looked fun and completely doable within their time frame. Sam was due to arrive by dinnertime tonight and they wanted to make sure they were back in time to meet him.

And so, they had determined a hike to McAfee Knob atop the Catawba Mountain. All told, it would be about a nine-mile hike that was advertised to take between four and six hours. It was morning now, which meant they would probably get to the knob a little before eleven o’clock before making their way back here. All told, they should get back to the parking lot around one in the afternoon.

If they didn’t make it back in time before Sam showed up, at least Tony and Pepper were still back at the cabin. Tony had declined the offer to join them today, saying hiking really wasn’t his thing. Part of Bruce knew that to be true, but he had a feeling that the bigger reason was this would be his first moment truly alone with Pepper in over two weeks. He absolutely couldn’t blame him for wanting to spend some time alone with Pepper.

Thor returned to Bruce and Clint just as the other car was pulling into the parking lot. He looked excited. “In my youth, the Warriors Three, Sif, and I would traverse new realms and look upon its beauty and majesty. I am most eager to do so on Midgard.”

“You’ll enjoy this, then,” Bruce said with a smile. He handed Thor the third backpack they had pulled from the trunk of the rental car. “There are tons of hiking trails around here, if you get the itch to do more.”

“Yes, I was just reading upon that!” Thor replied eagerly, gesturing back toward the sign. “We shall be hiking part of the Appalachian Trail, as I understand it.”

Clint left the two of them to sidle up to the car that pulled into the parking space a few spots down. “Did you get lost?” he asked with a teasing grin as Natasha, Steve, and Bucky emerged from the vehicle.

Natasha sniffed a little indignantly. “I just understand what traffic signals mean,” she replied coolly, shutting the driver’s side door.

“Friends! You have arrived!” Thor called from Bruce’s side, smiling widely in greeting.

Bucky pulled his ball-cap on and turned a look over at Steve. “What did I agree to, exactly?” he asked.

Steve, opening the trunk of the vehicle to collect their hiking bags, grinned over at him. “Don’t act like you weren’t egging her on to run that yellow light,” he said, mildly scolding.

Once everyone had their bag and the rental cars were locked, they made their way over to the sign that pointed them to the start of the trail. There were a few other vehicles in the parking lot. Apparently this was a popular hiking trail, but thankfully it was a Monday morning, so it wouldn’t be too terribly crowded.

Bruce looked the sign over with the others before he pulled off his glasses and stowed them away in a side pocket of his backpack, and then they were off. They quickly crossed the main road that led to the opening of the hiking trail they were taking, which was part of the Appalachian Trail.

The trail cut through the woods that covered the mountain, starting with a dirt trail that led to some stairs crafted from wooden planks. The incline started pretty quickly and they fell into a marching order: Thor at the front, then Clint, Bruce, Natasha, Bucky, and then Steve. 

As they hiked, they chatted about anything and everything. There were markers along the way to ensure they stayed on the path, though with it being such a popular trail, the path was pretty well traversed and well-defined. The woods around them were a gorgeous vibrant green with wildflowers dotted throughout the area. Sunlight filtered through the canopy overhead to highlight parts of the path before them.

Before long, there came openings in the trees that led to steep drop-offs, giving them gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and valley. They stood together, marveling over the sight for a few minutes before they continued on. 

At one point, as Bruce was glancing over at the mountainous skyline through the trees, Clint said his name. As Bruce glanced ahead at his boyfriend, he found Clint with his phone held up in selfie mode and already snapping pictures. 

Clint glanced over his shoulder at him, a bright smile already on his face. He fell back to be in step with Bruce and threw an arm over Bruce’s shoulders and pressed their faces together to take another picture. Bruce smiled easily and laughed with Natasha snuck into a few of the photos.

They continued on up the mountain at a steady pace, pausing a few times for water and pictures. They caught a fleeting glimpse of a deer as it crossed the path ahead of them at one point.

Finally, just past eleven in the morning, they reached their destination. The woods opened up to an absolutely breathtaking view of the valley and surrounding mountain range. They paused as a group to take in the splendorous sight quietly and reverently. Together, they stepped out onto the rocks and approached the edge of the precipice. 

The view beyond the edge was awe-inspiring. Before them was the valley and the mountains, greenery cast in shadow by the sun’s angle in the sky and ridge after ridge of mountains as far as the eye could see. The horizon was made up of the curved peaks of the different mountains along the range, reaching up toward the sky and clouds above. 

It was positively magnificent. 

There was a family up on McAfee’s Knob, a rock that jutted out from the mountainside to create a diving board-esque appearance. It was a man and woman and two kids, both boys, the older maybe getting close to his preteens. 

Bruce glanced at this family and saw the younger of the kids staring at their group, looking completely awed. He lightly smacked his brother’s arm, who looked irritated for all of a second before he looked over at the group. His expression instantly became a mirror image of his little brother’s face.

Bruce smiled a little and nudged Clint. “We’ve been spotted,” he murmured. 

The others glanced stealthily over at the family, where the two kids were openly staring at them. 

Clint grinned over at Steve. “Maybe you can convince the parents to take a group picture of us,” he suggested quietly.

Steve sighed a little and was already putting on his best _talking to the press_ face when Thor raised a hand and called out to them. “Greetings, fellow travelers!” he called.

The older boy immediately blushed and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking away, but the younger child instantly grinned. “Hi, Thor!” he called back, waving his arm furiously. 

The parents had looked over at Thor’s call, but at their son’s response, their eyes went wide. 

After taking a few pictures with their kids and the parents taking their group picture on Clint’s phone, they got to chatting a little. Natasha pulled Bucky aside when he started to get a little fidgety, taking him off to look over the valley. The kids seemed to have a million questions for Thor and Steve, and Clint and Bruce chatted with the parents. They promised not to share the photos on social media at least until later once they learned that they were on vacation. 

“The homeschool co-op that Ben and Mark are in wrapped up last week,” the father explained, “so we decided to take a vacation ourselves. I can’t imagine what yours would be like if the media found out you’re in the area.”

“I’m honestly surprised we haven’t been recognized before now,” Clint replied. “But yeah, we’re trying to keep something of a low profile while we’re here.”

“Secret’s safe with us,” the woman said with a reassuring hand gesture.

A few minutes later, the family packed up and after a quick wave goodbye, they started making their way back down the mountain. That left just their group at the overlook.

Natasha and Bucky came back over to join them once the family was gone. “Way to charm them,” Bucky commented mildly. He had pulled down his sleeves and plunged his hands deep in the pockets of his jacket as soon as he had seen the civilians, but he was pushing his sleeves back up now. 

Steve made a face at him, but Thor just smiled triumphantly. 

Together, they stepped out to the jutting rock known as McAfee’s Knob and observed the valley and surrounding mountains. Bruce found himself smiling at the view. He had seen similar views in all of his travels, but this was one of the first times he was seeing it with the people he held dear. 

He glanced around at the different reactions within the group. Thor was smiling serenely; surely he had seen grander views in his many years of living and out in the rest of the universe, but he could still appreciate the humbling sight before them. Bucky’s face was neutral, but his body language bespoke of how relaxed he was. Natasha was very much the same as Bucky, but like Bruce, she was glancing around at the rest of the group. She caught Bruce’s eye and quirked an eyebrow at him, but glanced away with a little smile when he smiled at her. Steve was looking over the valley with an artist’s eye, no doubt committing all of this to memory to sketch when he had some time. 

And when Bruce’s eyes went to Clint, he found Clint already looking at him. The moment their eyes met, Clint’s face softened with fondness and without a word, they closed the distance between them and wrapped an arm around each other. They held each other as they looked back out over the view, amazing in every meaning of the word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Here is McAfee's Knob!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=jB-EzRNSvhU&feature=emb_logo)


	9. Sandcastle

They were out on the back deck eating breakfast when each of their phones started going off. 

And just like that, the relaxing and soothing aura of _vacation_ instantly dissolved into _time to go to work._

==

“Well, we made it about a week without any calls,” Clint pointed out to the group as their briefing with Coulson ended. “I was expecting something to pull us away way earlier. You gotta admit, the fact that we made it this long without a call to assemble is impressive.”

They were on the quinjet, rocketing southward to reach the panhandle of Florida. Someone had apparently released a small cluster of squid-like hybrid creatures into the Gulf of Mexico just off of the shore Miramar Beach and they were now wreaking havoc in a major tourist area. 

Sam was looking over the hologram of one of the beasts in question and was stroking his chin. “You know, maybe the universe just knew that you all would need me to save your asses and was just waiting until I got to you guys,” he speculated innocently.

In the copilot seat, Bucky snorted a laugh. Whether it was in disbelief or amusement, Bruce couldn’t tell.

Bruce was focusing on the holographic displays in front of him, going over the information with Hulk. There were a good number of these things on the beach and starting to destroy hotels and restaurants, but there were still some out in the water. He had a feeling Hulk would be fighting the ones out in the water.

Sure enough, Steve started giving out his tactical plans a moment later. Sam would be up in the sky, helping spot any beasts from above. Natasha would remain as their pilot and would give Clint and Bucky, their snipers, good positions throughout the fight and assist Sam with calling out patterns in their enemy’s movement. Steve and Thor were on the ground, taking out the ones on land. Tony and Hulk would be in the water.

As they zeroed in on their location, everyone started preparing for the battle ahead. Clint had his hand and wrist guards already on and had his quiver in hand as he sat down next to Bruce on the bench. 

Bruce was leaning forward, slipping off his shoes and socks. He was buzzing with Hulk’s anticipation and eagerness to get a workout. He looked over as Clint sat down next to him. “Please stay in the jet this time, okay?” Bruce said.

Clint grinned at him. “I’ll do what I can,” he replied. He leaned in a little and looked in Bruce’s eyes. “They’re already going hazel,” he commented.

“He’s eager to get out,” Bruce said, pulling back a little to start unbuttoning his shirt. 

Clint was about to say something, but the back of the jet opened up. They looked up in time to see Steve pulling his cowl over his face and turn to Thor. They clasped wrists and then with a mighty whirl of his hammer, they rocketed out of the jet and it was officially go-time.

Tony, all suited up and with his faceplate still up, approached the pair on the bench and offered Bruce a hand. “Ready to rock and roll, Big Guy?”

Clint gave him a hearty pat on the back as he stood up. Bruce pulled off his shirt, leaving him in his stretchy Hulk pants, before he accepted Tony’s hand. Tony grinned wide and pulled him to his feet. His faceplate snapped down and Bruce could hear his thrusters start to rev up over the sound of wind.

Iron Man took off from the back of the jet with Bruce in tow. They circled above the coastline for a moment, just looking at the giant shapes in the water as they started moving toward land. 

_‘Now?’_ Hulk asked in his head.

Bruce quickly calculated the angle of their drop and yep, this was a great spot. 

_‘Now,’_ Bruce confirmed, letting go of Tony.

His stomach lurched with the freefall, but everything was quickly drowned out by the power surging through him and the haze of green.

==

_“Widow, Falcon,”_ Steve’s voice came through on the communicator, _“one final sweep to make sure that was the last of them.”_

_“I’ll take the land,”_ Sam said.

Clint shifted his weight to accommodate the shift in the jet’s trajectory as Natasha pulled the jet to the south to do a sweep of the beach. He glanced briefly over at Bucky, who was watching the passing scenery with a hardened look on his face. He still had his sniper in hand, at the ready for anything.

Bucky must have sensed he was being watched, for his eyes cut over to Clint. After a brief stare-down, he raised an eyebrow and the _hardened assassin_ façade was broken.

Clint grinned. “Nice shootin’, there,” he complimented.

With a look of vaguely confused amusement, Bucky’s posture loosened at that and he stood down a little. He was still getting used to coming on missions with them, still a little unsure where he stood with the rest of the group. Clint tried to be friendly with the guy, but he knew it could be overwhelming at times. Bruce was better at feeling out Bucky’s moods than he was. 

At the look on Bucky’s face, Clint grinned and collapsed his bow down. “What? A guy can’t compliment another man’s sniper abilities, one sniper to another?” he asked.

“You’re not too bad, yourself,” Bucky replied with a smirk.

Clint made a mock-offended noise and looked toward the front of the jet. “Tasha, did you hear that? _Not too bad,_ he says to the greatest archer on the planet.”

“Your modesty is a sight to behold, Clint,” Natasha called back from the pilot’s seat. “All clear,” she announced to the group at large.

_“Awesome,”_ came Tony’s response.

A moment later, Iron Man landed on the ramp at the back of the jet and his faceplate lifted. He grinned at Clint. “You’re going to want to see this,” he said eagerly, making his way to Clint.

“See what?” Clint asked even as he accepted Tony’s hand.

Tony only grinned again before his faceplate snapped down and then they were suddenly in the air, flying toward the beach. 

Clint tried to squint against the rushing wind, but it was hard to see anything at this velocity. He managed to catch sight of something green on the white sands.

Sure enough, when they landed, Hulk was nearby. There were uprooted umbrellas and abandoned towels, beach chairs, coolers, and beach toys along the sands. It was kind of eerie to see so many clues that this had been bustling public attraction before everyone was evacuated. There were also a few hybrid corpses on the beach, which just made it weirder.

Hulk was kneeling in the sand, his back to them and with beads of water still dotting his back and shoulders. His hair was damp and wild, like he had shaken it out like a dog. There were splashes of color among the sand with him, and when Clint focused in on them, he could see they were a multitude of different plastic buckets. 

Hulk glanced over at the sound of their landing and the grin that crossed his face when he locked eyes on Clint made Clint immediately smile. “Cupid stay in jet,” he said approvingly.

Clint rolled his eyes and started walking over to him. “A guy falls out of a jet one time…” he said.

“One time,” both Hulk and Tony repeated sarcastically in unison.

Clint actually laughed at that and leaned against the Hulk, resting his arm against Hulk’s shoulder. He could actually reach it, since Hulk was still kneeling in the sand. “What are you up to?” he asked, but once he actually looked down, he had his answer.

Hulk was kneeling in front of a few large mounds of sand, though some of them were clearly shaped with the aid of the plastic buckets nearby. There were a few lumps of wet sand that had been shaped into uneven columns, on which more towers were placed upon. There was a deep groove dug around the entire thing.

It was a sandcastle.

Clint beamed. “Aw, this is great!” he said. “I didn’t know you liked to build sandcastles.”

Hulk snorted and stood up, brushing sand off his knees. “Not Hulk’s,” he said. “Hulk just fix.”

As he went to the shoreline, Tony glanced over at Clint. “Turns out he accidentally smashed a kid’s sandcastle during the fight,” he explained as he knelt down to pick up some of the buckets. 

Clint smiled fondly and watched as Hulk knelt down to collect some wet sand in his massive hands. “And he wanted to fix it,” he said.

“And demanded I help him,” Tony added. When Clint looked down, Tony was creating another molded tower with a bucket. “I’m going to be getting sand out of this suit for weeks.”

“You just couldn’t turn down an awesome act of community service,” Clint replied with a smirk. He looked back over as Hulk started coming back. “You need a hand?” he asked.

Hulk grinned and dumped the mass of wet sand he had collected onto the ground. “Cupid build watchtower?” he suggested.

Clint grinned and knelt down with Tony. “You got it,” he replied. He could just imagine what a sight the three of them made: Clint in his Hawkeye attire, Tony still fully suited up, and the Hulk, all kneeling in the sand building a sandcastle together. He laughed quietly to himself and stole a quick look over at Tony.

Tony glanced up for a moment before he rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’ve been getting pictures,” he confirmed.

“Awesome,” Clint replied, getting to work.

He wasn’t sure what the original sandcastle had looked like, but whatever lack of artistic flair this one had made up for it in just sheer size. Hulk went back and forth between the shoreline to gather more wet sand for Tony and Clint to stencil more towers with the aid of the buckets that had been abandoned by the vacationers. It was an impressive display, to say the very least.

At last, Hulk stood up and looked over the creation with his hands on his hips and a look of scrutiny on his face. Finally, he gave a hum and nodded. “Fixed,” he declared.

The three of them stood back and took in the sandcastle. There was no sense of symmetry to it; just mounds of sand with towers wherever their hearts told them to place a tower. There was a piece of driftwood that served as the bridge across the deep mote Hulk had dug and Clint had found a few shells to serve as decorations atop some of the towers.

Clint grinned and patted Hulk’s forearm. “This is awesome,” he said. 

Tony made a noise of agreement. “You know,” he said, looking up at Hulk, “I _could_ make some of this more permanent,” he pointed out.

Rolling his eyes, Hulk glanced down at Tony. “No glass, Tony,” he said, like he was repeating himself. When Clint glanced up, he could see Hulk’s irises were more hazel than bright green. He smiled to himself; that was totally Bruce’s comment.

Tony huffed and gestured at the castle. “I’m just saying,” he went on, “you make it glass, it isn’t going to break again.”

“Kids play here,” Hulk said, standing firm. His hands went to his hips and he loomed a little over Tony. _“No glass.”_ Between the deep rumble of his voice and the imposing stance, he was a force to be reckoned with.

“Ugh,” Tony replied, looking toward the sky, hardly phased by Hulk’s threatening posture but still relenting. He then looked over at Clint. “He’s getting bossy,” he said.

Clint grinned and wrapped his arms around Hulk’s forearm. “He wouldn’t have to get bossy if you’d just listened the first time he said no glass,” he pointed out.

Hulk lifted his forearm, lifting Clint with it. He grinned savagely down at Tony. “Cupid knows,” he said smugly.

“Cupid is only agreeing with you ‘cause he’s dating your alter ego,” Tony pointed out, crossing his arms and looking distinctly unimpressed. 

Any further argument was put on hold by the sound of the approaching jet. They glanced over in time to see umbrellas and towels go scattering as Natasha landed the jet in one of the clearer spots of the beach. 

Tony shot them another look before he activated his thrusters and flew off toward the jet, leaving the two of them alone.

Hulk gently put Clint down in the sand and looked him over. Clint let him; he was doing the same to Hulk. There wasn’t any obvious damage to Hulk, and Clint had stayed in the jet the entire time. It helped that it had been a fairly straight-forward mission, too; way less risk for injuries.

Finally, Clint smiled up at Hulk. “I meant it,” he said, gesturing down at the sandcastle. “This is awesome. I bet the kids will be thrilled to see it once civilians are allowed back on the beach.” As Hulk smiled at that, Clint let his hands go to one of Hulk’s. “Ready to call it a day?” he asked.

Hulk glanced over at the quinjet, where the others were chatting on the ramp, clearly giving them a moment. He rolled his shoulders and pulled in a deep breath. As he exhaled, he looked off at the shoreline and Clint saw a moment of peace cross his face. 

“Let’s go,” Hulk said at last, turning and starting to walk toward the jet. 

Clint stayed with him, so he was ready when Hulk started to shrink and stumble in the dunes and debris. Clint easily caught him before he could fall and he pulled one of Bruce’s arms over his shoulder, easily molding himself to Bruce’s side and helping him along toward the jet. 

Bruce wasn’t unconscious, but he was certainly a little dazed. His eyes were unfocused and he probably would have fallen if Clint didn’t have a grasp on him, but he was awake. It never failed to impress Clint, just how far Bruce and Hulk had come since the start of the new year. 

They got into the jet as SHIELD agents started converging on the beach and surrounding city to take care of the damage and hybrid corpses. Clint sat them down on the bench and Bruce instantly slumped against him, still a little out of it.

Within a few minutes of being in the air, Bruce got some of his focus back and he looked across the way at where Tony was sitting, checking his phone. Clint watched as Bruce stared at him for a long moment and he bit back a smile when Bruce said “Tony.”

Tony looked up from his phone.

Bruce blinked at him for a moment before he quirked his head slightly. “Glass?” he asked, sounding mystified, but no less mischievous. 

Clint laughed at Tony’s squawk of indignation and Bruce’s laughter.


	10. Campfire

“…and the wretched Mare still haunts the dreams of children to this very day, so it is with a heavy heart that all mothers and fathers tell this tale of caution,” Thor concluded with a flourish of his hands and waggling of his fingers.

There was a crackle from within the fire and a few more embers started rising up with the hot air. The flickering light of the campfire cast shadows around each of them and the area around them seemed a little darker. 

The last of the sun’s rays had long since faded and it was now well and truly night. Further away from the fire, Bruce could look up and see the endless expanse of the cosmos. The Milky Way was easy to spot from the cabin, with it being so remote and in such a rural place. It was a vast difference from New York City.

He wasn’t sure how it had started, but as the evening had worn on and they had finally made use of the fire pit in the backyard, the ancient tradition of storytelling around the fire had reared its head.

Sam tipped his head and took a pull from his beer. “I got to say, Asgardians have some pretty good spooky stories,” he said.

Thor grinned proudly. 

The group was quiet for a moment, just letting the sounds of the night and the crackling of the fire wash over them.

Next to Bruce, Clint leaned forward in his seat to throw another log onto the fire. “If you all don’t mind a detour from spooky, I’ve got a pretty good one.”

“Go for it, Legolas,” Tony replied, waving an arm as if he was granting permission.

Bruce watched as Clint settled back in his seat with such ease and grace that Bruce couldn’t help but stare. It was so nice seeing him this relaxed. His eyes were bright and there was just such an air of contentedness to him that Bruce couldn’t help but smile.

“Alright,” Clint began as a nostalgic smile touched his lips, “I’m going to tell you the tale of how me and my brother almost burned down the circus.”

“What?” Steve asked with a laugh that sounded half disbelieving and half horrified.

“This story?” Natasha said, though there was no mistaking the smile that had started to curl on her lips. 

Sam gave a low whistle. “Talk about a detour from spooky.”

Pepper looked over at Bruce. “Have you heard this one yet?” 

“I can’t say that I have,” Bruce mused, glancing over at Clint.

Clint shot him a grin and a wink that had his stomach doing flips in his core. “It’s a good one, and there were only a few minor burns. Okay, so we were in the middle of nowhere and it was a slow night. Slow nights meant Barney and I got to perform. The Swordmaster really wanted an energized crowd before he went on, and told Trick to make it happen. His plan? Give the thirteen year old a flaming arrow and a target on the other side of the tent. But wait, wait. That wasn’t daring enough. What could he add to make it even more daring, more amazing? My brother had the solution.” He grinned and looked around the rest of the group. “Any guesses?” 

“Please tell me he didn’t suggest putting an apple on his head,” Pepper said, her voice almost pleading.

Clint laughed. “Even drunk, Trick had more sense than letting me shoot at anyone, let alone Barney. Anyone else?”

“Did he blindfold you?” Bucky asked.

Clint pointed at Bucky. “He blindfolded me!”

There was a chorus of _no!_ said with such horror and laughter.

Clint laughed at the cacophony of noise and motioned for quiet so he could continue. “Yeah, so I got a good look at the target across the arena, lined up my shot, was _blindfolded,_ and then had the tip of my arrow set on fire. Needless to say, I missed.” He looked off with a grin and he huffed a laugh. “I remember hearing the sound of disappointment at the missed shot, and then the sound of panic and screams. I pulled off the blindfold just in time to see the flames start to spread and the acrobats and clowns trying to put it out and the crowd jumping up and running out of the stands to get the hell out of there.”

“Well, you certainly energized them,” Sam pointed out with a chuckle.

Clint gave a mock bow in his seat. “Got them up out of their seats, didn’t I?”

“That’s one way to do it, I guess,” Bruce mused. 

Clint beamed over at him and wow, he was gorgeous in the firelight. Bruce found himself staring. 

“How about you?” Clint asked him. “Any stories to share? You haven’t shared one yet.”

Bruce glanced away from him and toward the fire. “I don’t have very many stories quite like that,” he hedged.

“But you’ve got some good ones,” Steve replied, giving him a kindly smile.

Bruce looked at him for a moment before he peered around at the rest of the group, at their expectant faces lit by the dancing flames they were surrounding. His eyes were drawn back to the fire, at the smoldering logs steadily burning and the little embers that rose up with the smoke toward the sky.

He smiled. “There was this one time,” he started, “I think I had recently crossed the border into Colombia and I had stopped for the night. I was running low on supplies, but I was at least a two day’s hike from the nearest town. So it was a bit of a surprise when I heard someone walking toward me, and a man walked out of the darkness.”

Bruce had a vivid memory of this. It had almost scared him into a transformation, being in the earlier years after the accident. But the man had paused on the edge of the firelight and Bruce had taken the time to try to calm his racing heart without Hulking out and killing the man. 

“He stood there for a few minutes and we stared at one another,” Bruce went on, still watching the fire in front of him. “I think we were waiting for the other to say something first,” he admitted with a huff of laughter. “He finally said something, but I didn’t recognize his language. I tried saying something to him in Spanish, but he didn’t understand me. So we stared at each other for another minute before I gestured for him to sit by the fire. I uh…I figured I had so few supplies as it was, it wouldn’t hurt if he did rob me in the night or something. 

“So we spent a few hours together next to the fire in silence, but it was actually really nice. It was so nice to have that little shred of companionship, even if we couldn’t really communicate with one another. 

“When I woke up in the morning, he was gone. I couldn’t find a trace that he had even been there. I still had all of my supplies. There weren’t any footprints going off anywhere that I could find. I’m still not sure if it even happened or if I had just dreamt the whole thing.”

There was an answering quiet as he fell into silence, still watching the fire and thinking back on that night. He really wasn’t sure if it had even happened in reality. He liked to think it had, but he had never experienced anything like that before that moment or ever again after it. It was a one-time event, just two strangers sharing a campfire in the middle of nowhere, completely unable to communicate. 

Finally, Sam gave another low whistle. “All these ghost stories tonight, man,” he said.

Bruce laughed. “I don’t think he was a ghost,” he replied.

“Totally a ghost,” Tony said.

Bruce huffed a laugh and looked back into the fire. Whatever it had been, it had helped to stave off the biting edge of his loneliness until he got into town two days later. Whether it was a real event or a figment of his imagination to help him survive his solitude, that feeling of companionship had felt real enough. 

As Sam, Steve, and Bucky started telling war stories, Clint scooted his chair a little closer to Bruce’s and reached over to lay his hand on Bruce’s arm. There was laughter and warmth around him now, and it felt just as real as the comfort that stranger had given him then had felt.

Bruce looked over at Clint. Clint stared back at him, a look of quiet concern on his face. He knew that Bruce struggled with loneliness and he must have sensed how desperate Bruce had been for any sort of human interaction that he had let a complete stranger near him when he was vulnerable. He knew how much Bruce craved companionship.

With a reassuring smile, Bruce gently took Clint’s hand in his and gave it a comforting squeeze. He had no shortage of companionship nowadays, even if sometimes their schedules did overlap and keep them apart at times. 

Together, they stayed around the campfire, swapping stories long into the night.


	11. Summer Rain

“How would you feel about taking a road trip this weekend?” Bruce asked as they walked. 

Steve and Bucky had discovered a nature trail not too far off the main road that took them on a scenic walk through the surrounding woods that gave them gorgeous sights of the surrounding mountains and hills. The two had found it on a morning run and had told the rest of the group about it. It made for a lovely walk; Clint and Bruce weren’t sprinting it as Bucky and Steve tended to, so they had been out on the path for a few hours now, just on a leisurely stroll. 

It was a warm day. When they had gotten to the start of the trail, the sky was starting to cloud up a little, but with the amount of trees overhead now, they only caught brief glimpses of the sky above. The morning had warmed up as the day progressed and Clint had taken off his jacket, tying it around his waist.

Clint glanced over at him. “Where abouts are you thinking on going?” he asked.

“I’m not entirely sure yet,” Bruce admitted. “How do you feel about camping?”

“When it’s not done for work, it’s fun,” Clint replied with a smile. 

“That’s very true,” Bruce said, smiling back. “How would you feel about just taking a drive somewhere and camping for a few days? Take each day as it comes?”

A smile spread across Clint’s face as he thought about it. “Go wherever the breeze takes us? Live life spontaneously?” 

The quiet yearning in Clint’s words settled it for Bruce. He smiled back and lightly bumped shoulders with his guy. “Yeah,” he replied. “Just the two of us.”

Clint bumped him back with an easy grin. “That sounds perfect,” he said. He glanced at the path ahead of them as his face evened out. “Of course, if you’re planning on turning this into a date weekend, it’s going to be that much harder to come up with the next set of plans to one-up you,” he pointed out mildly.

“I’m sure you’ll come up with something,” Bruce replied in the same tone of voice, biting back a fond smile.

“It’ll have to be more than a weekend, too,” Clint continued, like he was really thinking this through. “We’ll have to make it a full week or something. Just a date-week. I guess that means we’ll be stuck together for a full week in date-mode.”

“Which means I’ll have to plan date-month,” Bruce added.

“And then it’ll be date-year,” Clint kept going, a smile starting to appear on his face. “Can you imagine?”

“Being stuck with the same person in date-mode for years?” Bruce asked, smiling over at him.

“Yeah.” Clint looked over at him, now smiling with such fondness, such tenderness. His face was open, his expression soft and with just so much love in his eyes, and—

Bruce felt his stomach flip at that realization, and then gave another giddy lurch when he realized he felt the same way.

He loved this man.

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. When had this happened? How had this feeling snuck up on him?

How long had he been in love?

How had he not realized it sooner? They had danced around each other for so long before they had actually started dating, and when they _had_ actually started dating, it had been as easy as breathing. It was like they had known each other for years. There was never any shortage of affection between them. Even their disagreements were over wanting the other to treat themselves better. Sure, there were stretches of time when they couldn’t be together, but there were phone calls and text messages when they were able to. Clint always tried to go out of his way to try to talk to him at least once a day while he was away, just to show Bruce he loved him, and Bruce always tried to do the same for him, just to show Clint that Bruce loved him.

He’d been in love for months now and he hadn’t even realized it. Loving Clint was just so easy.

All of this went through Bruce in a single thudding heartbeat of a revelation.

Clint was still looking over at him lovingly, smiling. “Imagine dating someone forever,” he said.

And Bruce could. He could absolutely imagine dating Clint forever.

“Yeah,” Bruce replied softly, faintly.

Clint’s expression shifted into curiosity at the sudden tone shift in Bruce, but whatever comment he had was put on hold as a raindrop hit his face. 

They both came to a stop and glanced upward toward the canopy above them. What little sky they could see was grey and the trees swayed gently with a breeze, allowing more raindrops to filter through the leaves and land on them. 

“Aw, rain,” Clint muttered to himself softly and Bruce’s chest grew warm. Clint looked back at him. “We’re miles away from the cabin,” he pointed out. 

Bruce glanced skyward again. “Well, then, hopefully this doesn’t turn into a thunderstorm,” he said.

The rain started picking up and the wind was growing a little stronger. They were surrounded by trees and Clint was right—they were miles away from the cabin.

Clint breathed a soft curse and untied the jacket that he had previously tied around his waist. He pressed close to Bruce’s side and pulled the jacket over their heads as a make-shift shelter. Bruce instinctively lifted an arm to help him hold the jacket up above them and wrapped his free arm around Clint’s torso to keep him close. 

The rain bounced off of the jacket and dripped down the fabric. It effectively kept their heads dry, but with the light wind and the rain getting heavier, the rest of their bodies weren’t so lucky. Their surroundings were filled with the sound of raindrops hitting the ground or the different plant life all around them. 

At the feeling of Bruce’s hand on his hip, Clint turned a smile toward him, which brought their faces even closer together. “What do you think?” he asked softly. “Should we keep going or start heading back?”

Bruce smiled and leaned in the rest of the way and kissed him.

Clint drew a breath in through his nose in mild surprise, but he then melted into the kiss with a contented sigh. He pressed a little closer when Bruce ran the hand on his hip over his back and Clint let one of his hands start to lower to hold Bruce before the jacket over them hit their heads.

They broke apart to laugh a little. Clint righted the jacket above their heads to protect them from the rain. He hummed and tipped his head against Bruce’s. “What were we talking about?” he asked a little dreamily.

Another smile crossed Bruce’s face and he ran his hand along Clint’s back, feeling the hard planes of his muscles beneath his t-shirt. It was starting to stick to his skin with the rainwater. “Did I distract you?” he asked innocently.

“Yeah,” Clint replied, giving him a goofy smile and not at all ashamed.

Bruce laughed and pressed another kiss to his lips. God, he loved this man. He kept this kiss shorter, but it didn’t fail to make Clint start to reach for him again. “You asked if we should head back or keep going,” he said.

“Oh, right,” Clint replied. He glanced down at them. They were getting pretty soaked in rainwater from the shoulders down. The rain was still coming down around them, splashing against them with each breeze. It didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon, but there also weren’t any rumbles of thunder to be heard.

Bruce hazarded poking his head out of the makeshift shelter to glance upward. The sky he could see beyond the trees was a solid grey, clouds heavy with rain, but not particularly ominous. “I don’t think this is anything we need to really worry about,” he said, “but going on in bad weather might not be the smartest of ideas.”

“Can’t go against logic like that,” Clint replied with a grin. As Bruce glanced back at him, Clint leaned forward and kissed him. “Let’s go back,” he said softly against Bruce’s mouth.

“Okay,” Bruce replied, kissing him again.

When they finally broke apart, the light wind had died back down, but it was still raining pretty hard. They stayed tucked against one another, holding Clint’s jacket over their heads as they slowly started to make their way back toward the cabin. 

And as they walked, Bruce went back to his earlier reflections and his chest felt so full it could burst with the amount of love and affection coursing through him. Here he was, walking through the rain with the man he loved, the man he had been in love with for months, talking about their road trip and camping and just spending time together with just the two of them.

Bruce couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this happy.


	12. Roadtrip

“Alright,” Clint began with a bright smile as he pulled onto the main road, “where are we headed?”

As of this morning, the forecast for the weekend looked like they were in for nice weather over the next few days. There was always the possibility of rapidly changing weather with being in the mountains, of course, but for now, the skies were blue and there was a pleasant warmth to the wind coming in through the windows. 

From the passenger seat, Bruce smiled over at Clint. “We’re headed to Skyline Drive for the day,” he announced.

“I don’t know what that means,” Clint replied, “but sounds fun.”

Bruce laughed.

They had no real timeline on when they needed to be back at the cabin, so they had very loose plans. Bruce had called one of the campgrounds in advance to reserve them a spot to camp out overnight along Skyline Drive before possibly setting off eastward tomorrow. They had gear in the trunk of their car for a few days to live on the road and in campsites.

There was an element of freedom to this whole trip that Bruce found invigorating. Aside from the reserved campground tonight, they really didn’t have plans. They could go wherever their hearts desired, wherever the winds took them. One of the perks about living on the East Coast was having access to both the mountains and the beaches along the Atlantic Ocean, all within a few hours’ drive of each other. If they wanted to do a hike, they could stick around the western portion of the state. If they wanted to have a beach day, a few hours driving east would take them to the ocean. 

But that was a tomorrow decision, which was exciting. 

It wasn’t too far of a drive to get to the southern-most entry to Skyline Drive. After paying the fee, they were soon on their way up along one of the many mountains that made up the Appalachian Mountains. Skyline Drive was a stretch of road in the Shenandoah National Park that went along the mountains for 105 miles that consisted of multiple scenic overlooks, hiking trails, and a handful of campgrounds. The plan for today was to drive along the Skyline, hike a few of the easier trails, picnic for lunch and dinner, and then get to their campsite. 

They came to their first overlook and Clint immediately pulled over with an eager grin on his face. Bruce was happy to see him so excited and his eagerness was contagious. 

“Whoa,” Clint breathed as he got out of the car and looked out over the valley. There was a short wall between the little parking lot and the drop-off, but beyond that, the view was breathtaking. From where they were, they could see the shadows cast upon the earth by the clouds in the sky, darkening certain parts of the valley and surrounding countryside as they floated lazily by on the breeze. 

Bruce took all of it in as he moved casually around the car to stand next to Clint, who was still looking everything over. There was a serene little smile on his face and Bruce watched his eyes move from place to place, committing the sight to memory. 

And then Clint looked over at him and he was smiling one of Bruce’s very favorite smiles, the one that crinkled the lines around his eyes and that just seemed to radiate just so much _light._ Bruce felt that warmth in his chest and those butterflies in his stomach again, knowing full well that what he was feeling was love.

“Is the whole drive like this?” Clint asked him.

“Yeah,” Bruce answered, closing the distance between them. He settled his hand on the small of Clint’s back and smiled when Clint automatically wrapped an arm around him. “It’s over a hundred miles of roads and views like this.”

They looked out over the valley together. “You knew I’d like this,” Clint said after a moment, sounding vaguely accusing.

Bruce smiled quietly to himself. “You _do_ like high places,” he pointed out. 

Clint laughed. “Am I that easy to please?”

“I like that in a guy,” Bruce reassured him as he leaned in to press a kiss against his cheek and pat him on the chest.

They took in the view for a few minutes more before they returned to the car. They still had miles and miles of roadway to explore, not to mention the different hiking trails there were. Bruce had a few bookmarked that they could do that wouldn’t be too difficult. There were a few with waterfalls that he was particularly interested in.

And so they drove. The different views were incredible. There were stretches of the road that went through woods and others that went into tunnels that burrowed through the rocky terrain. They had to stop at one point as a black bear and her two cubs crossed the road. Clint had snatched up his phone to take pictures before they just sat in the cab of their vehicle, watching riveted.

They continued to pull off at the different overlooks, stopping at one to have their picnic lunch. They sat side by side, looking out over the valley and at the surrounding hills and mountains, perfectly content. 

Even after they had finished their lunch, they had sat there at the picnic tables, side by side, just chatting. “You worked at a college around here, right?” Clint asked at one point.

“Yeah, Culver isn’t too far from here,” Bruce replied. 

“Do you ever miss it?” Clint asked.

Bruce glanced over at him briefly before he looked off at the valley. There was a cloud overhead, casting a massive shadow down upon the woods covering the countryside. “There are times I miss it, sure,” he answered, “but I’m doing a lot of what I did there now, aside from teaching.” He smiled over at Clint. “Having interns assisting in the lab nowadays helps with that, though.” He leaned a little against Clint in reassurance. “I like what I’m doing now.”

Clint smiled and looped an arm around Bruce, holding him close. “Does Betty still teach there?” he asked. 

“Yep, cellular biology,” Bruce answered, settling against Clint and watching the shadow crawl across the valley.

“Did you want to swing by the old stomping grounds and see her?” Clint asked.

Bruce glanced over at Clint, who was watching him. When their eyes met, Clint quirked an eyebrow at him. “You _are_ still talking with her, right?”

“Of course,” Bruce answered. “She’s been wanting to meet you since Christmas. And I still haven’t met Leonard or their kid yet either.” 

He did want to see her. It had been in the back of his mind for days now. Culver was just a few hours away from the cabin, and he hadn’t seen Betty since Harlem. Sure, they emailed each other and sent each other letters and had the occasional video-call, but it wasn’t the same. He missed her, and getting the chance to possibly see her again was so tempting.

And she had wanted to see him just as badly as he had been wanting to see her. They both had significant others they wanted the other to meet. And with it being the summer, the Culver graduation ceremonies were already over, meaning Betty’s work had slowed down for a little bit. There was always lab work, of course, but she wasn’t teaching any summer courses. 

It was the perfect time, really.

Bruce felt himself start to smile. “You wouldn’t mind?” he asked softly.

Clint smiled and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Of course not,” he replied. “I want to meet her.” His smile started turning into a grin. “I bet she has some awesome stories about you.”

Bruce huffed a laugh. “You just want the embarrassing ones.”

“You could give Leonard the same kind of fodder against her,” Clint reasoned with a grin, not even trying to deny it. “Come on, it’ll be nice to make a new friend outside of our friend circle.”

Bruce smiled. He really wanted Betty to meet him. She was such an important part of his life; it hardly seemed right that she and Clint hadn’t properly met yet.

Bruce leaned in and kissed him. “I’ll email her to see if she’s free.”

Clint smiled into the next kiss.

==

They were coming up on their campsite in a few miles as the sun was getting ready to set. They had their picnic dinner along a hiking trail to see some waterfalls and Bruce had pushed them to get back on the road not long after that. 

There was an overlook that looked to the west that Bruce wanted them to get to by sunset that wasn’t too far from the campground. “Pull in here,” Bruce said, gesturing to the little lot off the side of the road.

Clint obeyed, pulling the car into the lot. There were a few other cars around the lot, but no one paid them any mind as they got out.

Clint locked the car and then looked out over the valley for a moment before he realized they had stopped here to watch the sunset. He glanced over at Bruce as Bruce took a hold of one of his hands to pull him to one of the massive boulders off to the side. “You big romantic,” Clint said with a pleased little laugh as they climbed atop the giant rock.

“What?” Bruce asked with an innocent little smile.

“You had this all planned,” Clint went on, snuggling up against Bruce as they turned to look out over the breathtaking view. 

The sky was a mix of blues and oranges, the last rays of the sun splashing the clouds overhead with accents of pinks and purples. The mountains and hills seemed to become bluer the further in distance they became, giving the range the name the Blue Ridge Mountains. The setting sun cast different sections of the hills in light and others in shadow. Even as they watched, the colors of the landscape changed, with the oranges turning pinker and then purple as the sun went down, with the shadows growing longer and longer until the entire valley was cast in shadow as the sun disappeared behind a mountain.

Stars began to emerge in the fading light. Once the sun was well and truly down, they leaned back until they were lying side by side, hand in hand, atop that giant boulder and looking up at the stars.

They chatted from time to time, but they were also just content to just take in the view in a companionable silence, just content to experience something with someone without an exchange of words. 

When another car pulled out of the lot, Bruce realized how late it had gotten. He couldn’t even check his watch, it had gotten so dark. He shifted until he could pull out his phone and check the time.

Clint snorted a laugh when Bruce hissed at the sudden brightness of the screen. “I guess we probably should have gotten to that campground before it got too dark, huh?” he asked.

“We can totally pitch a tent in the dark,” Bruce replied, setting his phone face-down on his chest and plunging them back into darkness. It was almost 10:30 at night. Time had slipped away. Oops.

Clint laughed. “Not that I doubt our skills,” he said, “but we could just sleep in the car. I kind of don’t want to leave just yet.” He tipped his head against Bruce’s and made no move to get up. “This is nice.”

Bruce glanced over at him, making out the faint outline of Clint’s face in the starlight and felt his chest suffuse with warmth again. He gave Clint’s hand in his a squeeze and looked back up at the stars. “Yeah,” he replied softly, smiling quietly to himself, “it really is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Here is the National Park Service's page on Skyline Drive!](https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/driving-skyline-drive.htm)


	13. Camping

Clint glanced up from his book to gaze across the meadow they were in when he realized it had gotten quiet. “Hulk?” he called, looking over the tall grass for any sign of the goliath. 

After staying up longer to watch the stars last night, he and Bruce had hunkered down in the car to sleep. They had talked as they were falling asleep about their plans for today and decided there were a few other hikes they wanted to try, so Bruce had moved the campsite reservation to tonight. They were actually going to make use of it tonight.

It was midday now and they had agreed to get to the campsite by dinnertime so they could get everything set up before the sunset. 

So they had hiked for a while, drove more along Skyline Drive, and picnicked for lunch not long ago. They had strayed off of the hiking trail and found a bit of open land surrounded by trees that seemed secluded enough. 

Clint had smiled when Bruce had shot him a questioning look with hazel eyes, and really, how was Clint going to deny such puppy dog eyes? He knew Bruce had promised Hulk some time out during their vacation and now was the perfect opportunity.

Only now Clint couldn’t seem to find him. 

They’d been here for two hours now and during those two hours, Hulk had happily bounded around the meadow, careful not to break anything. He had played with Clint for a little bit before he and Bruce went off to meditate for a little bit. Clint had found a boulder to perch on and dug out his book. The meditation hadn’t lasted long—it normally didn’t when it was Hulk in charge of their body. Hulk had gone back to running around and investigating the area.

Only now it was quiet. He couldn’t hear the Hulk rustling in the tall grass or him grumbling happily about something.

Clint’s brow furrowed as he looked over the meadow before he snapped his fingers up near his hearing aids. Yep, still working. “Hulk?” he called again, setting his book aside and climbing to his feet. He scanned the grass from the higher vantage point and found a portion in the field that seemed to have a patch of grass that seemed to be displaced from the surrounding grass.

He put his book into his backpack before hopping down into the grass. The grass came up to his waist; they’d have to do a serious search for ticks when they got to their campsite. He waded through the vegetation until he reached the spot he had seen.

Sure enough, there was Hulk, lying on his back and looking up at the sky. His eyes shot to Clint as he appeared in his field of vision before he stretched languidly and returned his eyes to the sky. 

Clint grinned down at him. “What are you doing?” he asked, squatting down to start picking some of the grass and leaves from Hulk’s hair. “Did you tire yourself out?”

“Hulk never tire out,” Hulk replied with a haughty sniff. His eyes—more green than brown, but still a mix—were focused skyward. “Cloud watching,” he answered.

“Aw, that’s fun,” Clint said with a smile, glancing skyward at the different fluffy clouds overhead. He glanced back down at Hulk. “So… do you want to keep doing it on your own, or…?”

Hulk actually rolled his eyes before he grabbed Clint and manhandled him until Clint was splayed on top of Hulk’s body. He laid his hands over Clint’s torso, pinning him down.

Clint let himself be held. He rested his hands atop Hulk’s and looked up at the clouds going by overhead. There were great big fluffy ones and a few wispy ones, floating lazily by on the different winds way up there. The grass around them swayed with the gentle breezes that moved across the meadow.

They stayed there for a while in a serene silence, just watching the clouds go by. Clint felt every breath Hulk took, his body rising and falling with each inhale and exhale. This was just so peaceful. The sun was warm, the breeze was nice…

==

He must have been lulled into a doze, for Clint jerked awake with a startled snort when something poked him.

Clint both felt and heard Hulk’s chuckle. He twisted his head and glanced up and over at Hulk, who was gazing down at where he was sprawled across his massive green chest. “Whazzat?” he asked drowsily, reaching up to rub at his face.

“Time?” Hulk said, smiling at him. 

Clint shuffled enough to reach into his back pocket for his phone. There were still clouds overhead, but judging by the shadows cast upon them, it was starting to get later in the day. He glanced at the screen on his phone. “It’s almost six,” he said before he stretched. As he was relaxing back against Hulk’s chest, he gave it an affectionate pat. “Think it’s time to head to the campsite?” he asked.

Instead of answering, Hulk sat up, carefully maneuvering Clint’s body until he was being cradled against his chest. Hulk climbed to his feet and moved to the boulder where their stuff was still waiting for them. 

Hulk set Clint down upon the rock before he stretched. As he relaxed, he started shrinking.

Clint hopped off of the rock and was ready to steady Bruce if he needed it. Bruce wavered for only a moment, but Clint was there. “You need to sit down?” he asked softly.

Bruce drew in a long breath and blinked his eyes open. He looked sleepy, but his eyes were focused when they met Clint’s. He smiled and Clint felt himself smile, too. “I’m fine,” Bruce replied. He blinked away the sleepiness and glanced skyward. “We should probably get going soon,” he said. 

Once Bruce was dressed, they sat down on the boulder for a few minutes. Clint handed him a bottle of water and a protein bar. They still had to finish this hike and get back to where they left the rental car and Bruce needed his strength. 

After he was finished, Bruce stashed the wrapper and half-empty bottle into his backpack before he smiled over at Clint. “Ready?”

Clint stared for a moment, taking in how relaxed Bruce was, even after a transformation. It was so nice to see him like this; away from the stress of his work, of _their_ work, able to finally take a much needed break after years upon years of first just surviving. There was a quiet confidence to him that Clint found mesmerizing. Actually rested and truly happy was a gorgeous look on him and Clint couldn’t get enough.

Clint smiled back and took his hand. “Ready.”

==

“Our lot should be just up here,” Bruce said, consulting the email from the park service for their campsite rental. 

They drove past some campers and other vehicles on their way through the campground. There were families and groups of people all around, getting ready to settle in for the night. From the general parking lot was a gravel road, which they followed until they finally reached their lot.

“Okay,” Clint said cheerfully as he turned off the car and shot Bruce a smile, “tent first?”

“Tent first,” Bruce agreed.

The bag that held the tent was settled across the back seat of the car. Clint pulled it out and they walked into the campsite, looking around. A majority of the clearing was grass, but there was some gravel surrounding a fire grate and beneath a wooden picnic table.

Clint upended the bag the tent was in, causing a brief ruckus as the different poles and stakes clattered to the ground. Bruce caught the instruction manual before it could fly away in a stray breeze. He pulled on his glasses and looked over the instructions, smiling when he felt Clint mold himself against Bruce’s back and hook his chin over his shoulder to look with him. 

All told, it didn’t take that long to put up the tent. Together, they managed to finagle the poles and get the fabric pulled over the structure until it was standing. They got it staked into the ground and stood back to admire their work before tossing their sleeping bags and pillows inside.

Bruce got a fire going as Clint pulled one of the coolers out of the car, lugging it to the fire grate. They had some of the fruits and vegetables from the farmers market from the previous weekend that they had been working through on their road trip. Clint produced a knife out of nowhere and began neatly cutting up the different vegetables as Bruce put them on skewers and started cooking them over the fire. 

The sun was starting to set by the time they collected up their trash and stowed the cooler back in the car. This was bear country; there were signs posted throughout the campgrounds and at the different stops to be mindful of keeping coolers locked away and to not attract bears. 

They sat in front of the fire together, chatting long into the night. The fire was nothing more than a smoldering pile of logs when Clint leaned against him and pressed a kiss against Bruce’s cheek. “Ready to call it a night?” Clint asked in a low whisper.

Bruce drew a breath to respond, but Clint pressed another kiss against his jaw, and then against his neck. He huffed a breathy laugh and tipped his head a little. His hand went to the back of Clint’s head, his fingers threading through his hair. “After we put out this fire, yes,” he answered softly.

He had to physically drag Clint away from his neck, but Clint was grinning. 

Once the last of the embers were extinguished and their campsite was put in order for the night, they retired for the evening. There were the sounds of nature surrounding them, as well as the occasional noise in the distance to remind them that there were other campers around. It was completely dark in the interior of the tent. 

It was still pretty warm outside, so they curled up against one another atop their sleeping bags. “This has been the greatest date-weekend I’ve had in a long time,” Clint said softly as he started kissing Bruce’s jaw again.

“So you have points of comparison, then?” Bruce asked, drawing a breath when Clint’s hand found its way up under his t-shirt. He arched slightly into the touch.

He felt Clint’s answering grin against his neck. “What did you want to do tomorrow?” Clint asked casually. He went back to kissing his way down the column of Bruce’s throat.

Bruce swallowed and stared up into the darkness of their tent. “We could go to the beach,” he suggested. “Or um…” he trailed off, getting distracted the moment Clint shifted until he was leaning over him. He wasn’t sure which point of contact to focus on and—ah, neck, yep.

“Or…?” Clint pressed teasingly as he got back to lightly nibbling and kissing his throat.

Two could play at this game.

Bruce pulled Clint on top of him. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said casually. “Anything you want to do?”

“Hmm…” Clint responded. “Well—”

Bruce smirked at the breathy sound Clint made when he ran his hands up the back of his shirt, sliding his palms against the hard planes of his back. “Well?” he repeated.

Clint huffed a small laugh before his lips found their way to Bruce’s mouth. “Let’s just figure it out tomorrow,” he said heatedly before kissing him.

Bruce immediately kissed back, humming his agreement.


	14. Berry Picking

“Bruce, you know it’s going to be fine,” Clint said again. “There’s no need to be nervous.”

“Mm hmm,” Bruce replied distractedly, but he didn’t look up from the chicken slowly making her way across the parking lot.

They had gotten here and parked about twenty minutes ago, and every minute that ticked by, Bruce found himself feeling more and more anxious. He knew it was ridiculous to be feeling like this, but well, he couldn’t help it. 

It was just going to be the first time he had seen Betty in person in almost seven years.

Nothing to be nervous about.

Clint lightly bumped shoulders with him. “Want to take a quick walk?” he asked softly. “It’s still fifteen minutes ‘til noon.”

There was a car pulling into the lot and Bruce’s eyes shot there, feeling his pulse start to race a little faster. Hulk poked at his consciousness curiously, concerned, but Bruce soothed him when he saw the occupants of the vehicle were two women, likely a mother and daughter. 

He jumped when Clint caught his hand. “Come on,” Clint said with gentle authority. “We’re taking a walk.”

Bruce let out a long breath and nodded. “Okay,” he said.

They walked up around the parking lot and to the little picnic area beneath some trees. Off to the left was the country store, and beyond that was the farm and orchard.

Bruce had gotten Betty’s email early this morning as they were breaking camp. She sounded thrilled at the chance to see him and meet Clint and that was when the nerves started to creep over him. Bruce had suggested meeting somewhere to the west of Culver and Betty had suggested meeting up here for a bit of nostalgia.

They had come here to pick berries numerous times while they had been at Culver University. There hadn’t been a whole lot of free time during those years, between their research and teaching, but they had tried to make it a point to get away for at least a day in each of the summer months to take a break. 

The Hilltopple Berry Farm was about an hour’s drive from the university, out in the country with the Blue Ridge Mountains off in the distance. They’d drive to the mountains for a morning hike and then drive here to do some berry picking and have dinner before heading back. It had become a summer tradition for them.

It was _weird_ being back.

Clint gave his hand a squeeze, bringing him back to the present. “Why are you so nervous?” Clint asked him quietly. “You’ve been talking to her for about a year now.”

“I know,” Bruce answered, looking over the picnic area as waves of nostalgia came over him. “It’s just…I haven’t seen her in person since Harlem. I had dragged her into my mess and then left without saying goodbye. It’s just going to be weird seeing her.”

Clint made a noise of agreement and squeezed his hand again. They started wandering around the picnic area. “I guess it’s always weird seeing an ex, even if you are still friends.” He looked over at Bruce. “Are you afraid she’s going to see you and then not want to speak with you ever again? Cause that’s ridiculous.”

“I know,” Bruce agreed.

“Because she reached out to you first,” Clint went on. “She obviously wants to be your friend.”

“I know,” Bruce said again.

“I mean, who can blame her? You’re awesome.”

Bruce laughed and lightly bumped shoulders with his guy. “I’m not,” he replied.

“You are, don’t even deny it,” Clint countered with a grin. “It’s going to be fine. You’re going to introduce me to your friend, we’ll get to meet her husband and kid, and we’re going to have an awesome afternoon together on a double-date. You’re going to have fun.”

“Is this a double-date?” Bruce asked, smiling.

Clint beamed at him and lightly poked him in the chest with his free hand. “It’s still the weekend. You promised me a date-weekend.”

Bruce laughed again and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. He felt a little steadier. “I did promise you that,” he replied. He reached up and cupped Clint’s cheek, guiding their lips together. “Thank you,” he said softly as they broke apart, looking into Clint’s eyes. 

With a smile, Clint’s expression turned softer and Bruce was once again struck with that feeling of butterflies in his stomach. It was drowning out the anxious nerves. “Feeling a little better?” Clint asked him in such a caring voice that Bruce thought he might suffocate in his love for this man.

Bruce smiled back and kissed him again, sighing a little when Clint kissed him back steadily. “You’ve effectively distracted me, yes,” he answered.

Clint grinned and pulled him into a quick embrace. He drew a breath to respond and—

“Bruce!” 

The two of them pulled apart and glanced behind them at the parking lot and there she was. 

It was so different than seeing her on a screen. Here she was, flesh and blood, staring back at him with just as much wonder and love that he was feeling. 

And she was running straight at him.

He caught her as she launched herself at him, and without Clint there to steady him, she probably would have tackled him to the ground. Their arms immediately wrapped around each other and why had he been nervous? They held each other for the first time in _years_ and Bruce was almost breathless with happiness.

Betty pulled back and looked up to him, smiling so radiantly as she just stared at him. He stared back. “Hi,” she said a little breathlessly.

“Hi,” he said, sounding the same.

“Betty!” came a voice from behind them. They looked back at the lot to see a man jogging up. He was a tall man with dark hair and Bruce vaguely recognized him from before the incident on campus with General Ross before Harlem. 

“Betty,” he said, “you can’t just jump out of a moving vehicle, even if we’re only going three miles per hour.”

Betty scoffed playfully and pulled away from Bruce. “Tell that to this guy,” she said, jerking a thumb at Bruce. “He jumped out of a jet the last time I saw him.”

Next to him, Clint grinned. “It’s a regular occurrence nowadays,” he said, looping an arm around Bruce’s back.

Bruce huffed a laugh and looked over at him before looking back at Betty. “Betty, this is Clint,” he said.

Clint stuck out his free hand and smiled at her. “Nice to finally meet you, Betty,” he said, sounding completely genuine. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Betty took his hand and gave it a shake. “I’ve heard about you, too,” Betty said, still smiling. “It’s so nice to meet you.” Their hands broke apart and she pulled her husband closer. “This is Leo.”

“Leonard Samson,” Betty’s husband introduced himself as, shaking each of their hands. He looked a little nervous. “Dr. Banner, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“You can just call me Bruce,” he replied, shaking his hand. 

Introductions out of the way, Bruce glanced back at Betty to find she was looking at him. Their eyes met and she smiled again. “It’s so good to see you,” she said. “It’s been too long.”

“I know,” Bruce replied, just taking her in. She looked a little older than he remembered, but then again, he knew he looked older now, too. But more than that, she looked _happy._ That, more than anything, made any last nerves within him vanish. “I’m sorry it’s been so long.”

Betty smiled. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

There was a brief silence before Betty corralled them toward the shop to get some lunch. Clint kept up his points of contact, a gentle reassurance, and Bruce was eternally grateful. Since the introductions had been completed, conversation had become a little stilted.

“So, uh, where’s Penny?” Bruce asked as they were waiting for their orders.

Betty smiled at him before patting Leonard’s chest. “Leo’s mother was adamant about keeping their grandparent day,” she replied. “Otherwise we would have brought her. Maybe next time.”

Bruce felt himself immediately smile. “Next time,” he agreed softly. He cleared his throat and looked to her husband. “So, Leonard, Betty mentioned you’ve just been promoted to department head at Culver?”

Leonard looked back at him and smiled, taking the offer for conversation for what it was. “Yes,” he said before he launched into news from the psychology department at Culver University. 

And just like that, they were chatting easily. They picked up their orders and took their lunch outside to the picnic area, where Leonard and Betty filled him in on the newest developments at Culver. He asked about some of his former colleagues and was happy to get some news on them. He hadn’t talked to other people from Culver in over a decade.

“And how about you, Clint?” Betty asked. “Bruce has mentioned how things got a bit hectic after the whole SHIELD thing last year. How are you doing?”

Clint, who had been largely quiet during all of this, offered a mild shrug. “We’ve been keeping busy,” he answered, which was the largest understatement of the year. “Just because the largest surveillance organization was disbanded doesn’t mean that evil out in the world is going to slow down. So we’re keeping up with new threats that pop up all the time.” 

He then smiled over at Bruce and lightly bumped shoulders. “So it’s been so nice to finally take a break.”

“It has,” Bruce agreed, smiling back at him. “This was very much needed.”

Betty looked conspiratorially at Clint. “Does he still spend hours and hours in the lab?” she asked.

Clint met her eye. “This all started because he and Tony worked for over three days straight,” he replied.

Betty shot a look at Bruce and threw her balled-up napkin at him. “You said you were getting better!” she accused.

“I am!” Bruce replied in his own defense. He leaned down to pick up the napkin and tossed it onto the table. “And you know that isn’t the worst it’s gotten.”

“Oh?” Clint said, turning a look over at Betty with an eager smile. “Do tell _that_ story, please.” 

“Oh no,” Bruce mumbled, hiding his face behind his hands.

Clint patted him on the back. “You’ll get to tell Leonard embarrassing stories about Betty in return, don’t worry,” he said reassuringly.

“You’d better not,” Betty threatened.

“Please do,” Leonard added, laughing when Betty rounded her look on him.

And the ice between the four of them was broken.

==

“I owe you an apology.”

Bruce glanced away from the blackberry bush he was looking over to find Leonard standing next to him, looking awkward but determined.

After lunch, the four of them had returned to the little store to each obtain a bucket to start picking berries. The orchard had rows and rows of different berry bushes. There were rows of trellises with grape vines growing on them over further off and a greenhouse that protected the more sensitive vegetables growing. 

The group had stayed together for the first hour, chatting and sharing stories. Betty had caught Clint’s arm and dragged him off to a different row and Clint had allowed himself to be pulled along. He had shot Bruce an easy grin as they wandered off and Bruce had watched them go with a happy smile.

Now, Leonard was standing rigid next to him and Betty and Clint were out of earshot. 

Bruce turned to face him fully. “An apology?” he asked.

Leonard swallowed and looked off at where Betty was before looking back at Bruce. “I want to apologize for what happened at Culver.”

Bruce felt his brow furrow for all of a moment before he realized what this was. “You tipped off Ross,” he said. 

Hulk growled in his head, low and menacing, at the mention of General Ross. 

The other man drew a long breath and nodded, closing his eyes and dipping his head toward the ground.

He had wondered how General Ross had found him at Culver University that day he was going to say goodbye to Betty and keep making his way north. He figured he had had eyes everywhere and knew that Culver was one of those places Bruce might visit again. He hadn’t even considered that it had been Betty’s boyfriend that had alerted him.

But as he looked at Leonard, Betty’s husband, he didn’t think it had been about jealousy that Bruce was suddenly back in Betty’s life. No, he looked ashamed of himself, and Bruce realized this didn’t really have anything to do with him.

Bruce felt his expression soften with sympathy. “How long have you been carrying this guilt with you?” he asked gently.

Leonard looked up at him almost in surprise. He must have been expecting anger. 

A few years earlier, Bruce might have been angry about this. Angry that this man had put both him and Betty in a dangerous situation, angry that he had been forced to transform and ultimately hurt dozens of people. 

But Leonard hadn’t called the general because he thought Bruce needed to be contained.

He had called because he had been worried about Betty.

How could Bruce be angry about that?

As Leonard met Bruce’s gaze, Bruce offered him a gentle smile. “You did it to protect her, right?” he asked.

Leonard’s eyes moved from feature to feature on Bruce’s face. “I did, against her wishes. And it very nearly cost me deeply,” he admitted in a low, scared voice as he looked back at Betty.

Bruce followed his gaze in time to see Clint and Betty laugh about something. It looked like Clint was telling her a story; he made an elaborate hand gesture and nearly upended his bucket of berries, which just made Betty laugh harder.

“I was so afraid of losing her,” Leonard went on quietly, “and in the end, I almost did.” When Bruce glanced back, he found Leonard still looking at Betty. “I had to work to win back her trust and earn her forgiveness. She may have forgiven me, but there are still reminders, you know?” He let his eyes shift over to Bruce. “So when she told me you two had reconnected, it came back to the surface.” 

He smiled a little then, and it looked like it was at his own expense. “I’m a psychiatrist. I work with lots of clients on feelings of guilt and forgiveness. It’s one thing to know you need to forgive yourself for past mistakes and another to still have that guilt eating away at you.” His smile fell away and he looked Bruce dead in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Bruce stared back at him. He knew a thing or two about guilt. He knew there were wrongs he’d never be able to right, and that he would carry that guilt with him for the rest of his life. There were days where that guilt didn’t consume him, but there were definitely bad days where it was hard to think about much else. It was hard to forgive yourself for things when you couldn’t physically apologize to the person you had hurt, but it was something he was learning to do. 

After another moment, Bruce offered him another little smile. “I forgive you,” he said. “It’s hard to carry that around with you for so long, especially someone in your position. It’s hard to tell someone to be kind to yourself and to forgive yourself, but then not follow your own advice. I get it. Thank you for apologizing.”

Leonard stared at him for a long moment. “You know,” he began hesitantly, “I thought you’d be angrier. Not that I want you to be angry with me, I just…” he trailed off awkwardly.

Bruce chuckled. “I’m well aware of the rumors about my anger issues,” he said mildly, “but you know?” He glanced back over at Betty and Clint to see them coming back their way and he felt himself smile. “I’m not so angry anymore.”

He looked back at Leonard. “I’ve known Betty for a long time. All I want for her—all I’ve ever wanted for her—was for her to be happy. You make her happy. I can’t be angry about that.”

Leonard smiled, looking relieved and happy and—when he looked at Betty—in love. “I just want her to be happy, too,” he said. “She still loves you.”

“And I’ll love her,” Bruce replied easily. “I’m just not in love with her anymore, and she’s not in love with me anymore. And that’s okay. We both found happiness elsewhere and we can still be friends.”

Leonard smiled again and offered his hand. “I’m glad you two reconnected,” he said.

Bruce smiled and shook his hand. “Me too.”

Their hands fell to their sides as Clint and Betty returned to them. “Bruce, look at the size of this thing,” Clint said, holding a single blackberry up in the palm of his hand. “It’s the size of my thumb.”

As Bruce laughed, Betty moved to Leonard’s side. She wrapped an arm around him. “You two good?” she asked, shooting a significant look up at her husband that Bruce probably wasn’t meant to have seen.

Leonard smiled over at Bruce. “I think we’re good,” he said.

Bruce smiled back.

==

“So,” Betty said as she sat down next to Bruce on the picnic bench. “Clint seems nice.”

Bruce had had to step away to take a quick call with one of his interns, leaving Clint with Leonard and Betty for a few minutes. He had hung up and watched the three of them interact for a moment before he went to double-check his emails to make sure he hadn’t missed anything urgent from his other interns.

Bruce glanced over at Betty before he looked back at where Clint and Leonard were standing. He smiled. “He is,” he agreed. He then cocked his head slightly. “Is Clint teaching your husband how to shoot an arrow?” he asked.

Betty laughed. “Penny really likes that _Brave_ movie and makes Leo play with her. I think Clint is giving him some pointers on proper archery techniques.”

Bruce huffed a laugh. “Of course he is.”

They sat there for a moment, watching their significant others interact. 

Finally, Betty spoke. “I’m happy for you, Bruce.” When Bruce glanced over at her, she was still staring off at the other two. “After so many years of hardship, I’m glad you’re finally here and you’re happy.” She then looked over at him and smiled. “I’m so happy for you.”

Bruce smiled and felt his chest grow warm with gratitude. “Thank you,” he said softly. “I’m happy for you, too. I know you’ve had your fair share of difficult times and it’s so great to see you now, happy and healthy.”

Betty ducked her head a little, but she was still smiling. “It helps to have someone in your corner.”

“It really does,” Bruce agreed.

They settled in for a moment of quiet between them before Betty looked back at him. “So have you told him yet?”

“Told him what?” Bruce asked.

“That you love him.”

Bruce looked back at her and at his expression, Betty laughed. “Bruce, it’s hard to miss,” she said. “I saw the way you two were looking at each other when we pulled into the parking lot.” There was a brief pause. “You haven’t told him yet.”

“Not yet,” Bruce replied softly, glancing back over at Clint. He smiled when he saw his guy correcting Leonard’s posture as he held an invisible bow aloft. “I just realized it myself a few days ago,” he admitted.

That made Betty laugh quietly to herself.

Her laughter made Bruce laugh. “I know,” he said. “I tend to not notice these things so well.” He watched Clint, smiling quietly to himself and feeling that familiar warmth flood through him. “I’m going to tell him soon.”

“Good,” Betty replied, “because I have so many more stories to tell him about you that I’m sure he’d just _love.”_

Bruce let his face go neutral as he glanced back over at her. “You know, Leonard gave me his card. I can tell him just as many stories about you.”

“Don’t you dare,” Betty replied, but she was smiling. 

So was he.

==

Clint and Bruce waved after Betty and Leonard as their car pulled back onto the dirt driveway leading back to the road. They needed to get back to Leonard’s parents’ house to pick up their daughter before it got too late. 

They got in their rental car and Bruce smiled over at Clint. “So, you’ve finally met Betty,” he said happily.

“I did,” Clint agreed. Before he put the key in the ignition, he looked over at Bruce. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

Bruce caught Clint’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m feeling good,” he said. “Thank you for suggesting we try to meet up. That was really nice.”

Clint smiled at that, a pleased and relieved smile that had Bruce wanting to kiss him. “I’m glad it all worked out,” he said, leaning across the central console to kiss him. 

As they got back on the road, two buckets of blue and blackberries added to their cargo, Bruce glanced over at Clint. “So how many stories did she tell you?” he risked asking.

A grin immediately spread across Clint’s face.


	15. Beach

Bruce closed the fourth book to the _Harry Potter_ series and set it aside, content to just bask in the sun for the moment. The beach around him was active, but not as active as if they had come on the weekend. There was the general den from the other beachgoers, but there were also the sounds of the seagulls overhead and of the waves crashing ashore. 

The sun overhead was bright and he could feel the presence in his head give a happy rumble. Bruce smiled to himself; Hulk really enjoyed the sunlight.

Laid out on a beach towel next to him, Clint was sunbathing and reading his awful sci-fi book. 

Bruce took a moment to just look at him. Clint was always a sight to behold, but here, dressed in only swimming trunks and his ridiculous sunglasses, he was an absolute specimen. Years of archery had toned his arms, shoulders, and chest and Bruce couldn’t get enough. 

“You’re staring again,” Clint said as a slow grin started to curl across his lips.

“Can you blame me?” Bruce replied, not at all abashed.

With a grin, Clint finally set the book aside and lifted his sunglasses enough so he could meet Bruce’s eyes. “You finish your book already?” he asked.

“Yeah, I just finished it,” Bruce replied, nodding toward the closed book.

“Damn, you read fast,” Clint replied as he sat up, closing his book and setting it aside. He settled and looked out at the water.

Bruce watched him for a moment, just watching as the ocean breezes rustled his hair a little and how the golden sunlight hit his skin. This man was gorgeous.

Clint started smiling again as he was looking at the waves come in. “You’re staring again,” he said again, this time in a sing-song voice. He grinned over at him when Bruce laughed. “Come on; let’s get in the water for a little bit.”

“Okay,” Bruce replied. “Do you need another layer of sunscreen first?” 

“Nah, it hasn’t been that long since the last one,” Clint answered as he got up. He offered Bruce a hand up and then continued to hold his hand as they walked down to the water. “You really don’t need sunscreen?”

“It’s one of the effects of the radiation,” Bruce replied. “I tan pretty easily, but I haven’t burned since the accident.”

“Huh,” Clint said. There was a pause as they dodged around some kids throwing a football. They made it to the water and paused, letting the waves come up to their ankles and feeling the wet sand shift beneath their feet as the water was pulled back into the ocean. “Can I lather you up anyway?” Clint asked at length.

A surprised laugh escaped from Bruce and Clint grinned immediately in triumph. “Of course,” Bruce said with a laugh.

Together, they watched some college-aged folks boogie board their way across the surf. There was a pier not far from where they were where a handful of people were fishing. Behind them, families and friends were gathered to enjoy the sun and each other’s company. 

They walked along the shore where the water greeted the sand, hand in hand and just chatting. They talked a little about the book Bruce had just finished and what was happening in Clint’s book. It sounded wild, and Clint was immensely enjoying it.

“Did you want to head back to the cabin tomorrow?” Clint asked after a while as they were making their way back to their towels. 

“Yeah, that sounds fine,” Bruce replied.

“Not that I haven’t enjoyed our long weekend,” Clint said as he lightly nudged Bruce’s shoulder with his own. “Because rest assured, this has been amazing.”

Bruce smiled at him and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “It has,” he agreed. “I’m glad you’ve had fun.”

“I’m not sure what part has been my favorite,” Clint went on, glancing ahead again. “The sunset was pretty special.” Another happy smile crossed his face at the memory of it.

Again, Bruce found himself staring.

They made it back to their towels and Bruce helped Clint apply another layer of sunscreen before Clint helped Bruce do the same, even if he didn’t need it. Bruce was just happy to have Clint’s hands on him, as Clint was just happy to get his hands on him. 

Clint got back to his book and Bruce started people-watching. He didn’t have the fifth book of the series with him, so he’d get started on that probably tomorrow night, after they got back to the cabin. Bruce watched a group of joggers go by, followed by a pair of joggers who had two dogs on leashes with them. Bruce smiled as the dogs ran in the surf with their owners. 

After a while, Clint fell asleep with his book over his face and his hands folded together on his stomach. Bruce looked him over for a minute, smiling to himself. He glanced back toward the water and reveled in how at peace he felt. It was incredible, feeling this relaxed after being stressed for so long. He hadn’t even really noticed how stressed he had gotten back in New York, how that stress had only made the itch to get up and travel somewhere worse. They had both really needed a break, and he was grateful that they had taken the idea and ran with it. 

Standing up for a moment, Bruce shook the sand from his beach towel and gently draped it over Clint’s sleeping form. Bruce sat back down in the sand and in a loose crisscross position and focused in on that peace. He closed his eyes and let the sounds surround him. There was the chatter of different beachgoers around him. There was the sound of seagulls overhead and the barking of the occasional dog further down the beach. He pulled in a deep breath and could smell the salt in the air. 

He gently prodded at Hulk. _‘You up for a chat?’_ he asked.

Hulk gave a content grumble. _‘Sun is nice,’_ he answered, but Bruce could feel his alter ego’s attention shift into meditation-mode.

==

Bruce drew a long breath at last and felt his shoulders dip a little as he came back to the present. There were fewer voices around him now, and when he blinked his eyes open at last, he realized why. The sun had shifted in the sky and it was evening. 

“Welcome back.”

Bruce glanced over and found Clint smiling at him. “Sorry,” Bruce said, stretching after being still for such a long time. “I didn’t mean to be gone for that long.”

“Hey, it’s no problem,” Clint replied with an easy smile. “I think I fell asleep on you, so no worries at all.”

Bruce looked Clint over and made a concerned noise. “Your shoulders look a little pink,” he said.

Clint glanced down at one of his shoulders and poked the skin. “Doesn’t hurt,” he replied. “It’s fine.” He then looked back at Bruce. “Did you want to take another walk and then find a restaurant for dinner? I bet we could find somewhere on the water.”

“Sure, that sounds great,” Bruce replied, still eyeing Clint’s shoulders.

They wandered the beach for a little longer as the sun continued across the sky toward the horizon to the west. Sunset wasn’t for another two hours, but people were already starting to head home for the day. They walked in the surf again, not really wanting to get too wet before they left to go search for a restaurant. Along their walk, they found a few shells to collect and gift to the rest of the group back at the cabin.

As they walked and collected shells, they talked about their game plan for tomorrow. It was going to be roughly a six hour drive back to the cabin, so they’d find a town along the way to stop at for lunch before the rest of the trip. Depending on where they stopped, they might browse around for a little bit.

They made it back to their towels and started packing up. Bruce eyed Clint’s shoulders as he was getting dressed, but Clint seemed okay. Clint also shot him a reassuring grin, so Bruce put it out of his mind. 

After they had gathered everything and started crossing the sand to head to the parking lot, Clint linked his arm with Bruce’s. “So, what are you feeling for dinner?” 

“I bet the seafood around here is pretty good,” Bruce answered.

“Ooh, good thinking,” Clint said. “We can do a search once we get to the car.” He then leaned in and kissed Bruce’s cheek. “Thank you for this.”

Bruce smiled at him and lightly tipped his temple against Clint’s. “I’m glad you had fun,” he said quietly.

“I did,” Clint confirmed with a soft smile. “We need to do more getaways. More road trips.”

Bruce huffed a laugh. “That would be really nice.”

“Then let’s do it,” Clint said, grinning at him. “Maybe we can go further north sometime. I’ve heard nice things about Maine.”

“I’ve only gone there for a conference once, back in grad school,” Bruce admitted.

“Yeah, I’ve only gone for work, so no time to sightsee,” Clint replied. “I’ve heard it’s gorgeous up there in the fall.”

“It’s pretty around here in the fall, too,” Bruce said, “but you’re right. I’ve heard autumn is absolutely beautiful up in the New England area. Maybe we can take a road trip through those states and really get a feel for it.”

Clint smiled. “That sounds amazing.”

They put their backpacks in the trunk of the car and Bruce pulled up a search engine on his phone. They tipped their heads together to look through the results of the different seafood restaurants around here before they picked one at random. Then they were on their way.

As Clint drove, Bruce watched the ocean between the different buildings and along the different bridges they took. There were different water birds that flew by overhead and Bruce found himself smiling, breathing in the salty air and settling a little bit more.


	16. Sunburn

Bruce could feel the heat coming off of Clint’s shoulder as he woke up. Even half-asleep, he was cautious as he carefully pulled back from Clint and opened his eyes to take a look.

Clint was still fast asleep, though there was a slight furrow to his brow that bespoke of discomfort. It was hardly surprising. Bruce pulled in a sympathetic breath as he took in the reddened skin of Clint’s bare shoulders and upper chest. The tip of his nose was also red, though it wasn’t the angry red as other parts.

That was surely going to sting for a few days. 

Bruce glanced over at the clock on the nightstand next to him. They had checked into a hotel for their last night abroad to make sure they were well rested for the long drive back to the cabin on the other side of the state. 

It was early, earlier than even he normally woke up. The lighting in the room was dim, with only the faint streetlight coming in from the partially opened curtain across the room. It was only 5:30 in the morning, just shy of sunrise.

Bruce glanced back down at Clint one more time before he carefully got out of bed without jostling the mattress too much. He had some errands to run.

==

By the time Bruce got back to the hotel room, the sun was up and the city was gearing up to face a new day. He just hoped he got back before Clint woke up.

Unfortunately, the bed was empty when Bruce let himself into their hotel room and he could hear the shower running. Bruce set the few bags of materials aside and peeked into the bathroom, since Clint had left the door open. It wasn’t steamy, which was good. Cool water would help soothe the burns a little bit.

It wasn’t long before Bruce heard the running water turn off. He finished writing up an email response to one of his interns before he tossed his phone onto the bedspread and got up. 

When he got to the bathroom doorway, Clint had a towel slung low on his hips and was drying his hair. Some of his movement was stilted, like he wasn’t trying to pull at the skin on his shoulders any more than he needed to.

As Clint pulled the towel away from his head, he noticed Bruce standing in the doorway. He gave him a grin. “Good morning,” he said.

Bruce smiled back. “Good morning,” he replied.

Clint’s smile then became a bit rueful as he gestured loosely at his shoulders. “You were right,” he said. “It didn’t seem that bad last night.”

“It’s normally a few hours before a sunburn really starts to kick in,” Bruce explained as he finally stepped into the bathroom. He took a closer look at the burns across Clint’s shoulders and chest and he noticed there was some burning on his upper back, too. “How bad does it sting?” he asked.

“It’s unpleasant, but I’ve hurt way worse than this before,” Clint answered. At Bruce’s look, he smiled. “It’s not that bad, Bruce.” He turned to the counter and started putting his hearing aids in.

Bruce looked over the burns again and sighed. “I just don’t like you hurting,” he said after Clint had his aids in. He held up the bottle of aloe vera he had purchased on his morning errands and Clint gave him a thankful look in the mirror. “Did you want to put this on, or can I?”

“You’ll do a better job of it,” Clint replied, giving him a little smile. He watched in the mirror as Bruce squeezed some of the aloe into this hand.

“This’ll sting a little,” Bruce warned softly before he gently started rubbing the gel across the back of Clint’s neck. 

Clint jumped a little at the first touch and then huffed a little laugh. “It’s cold,” he said, giving him a sheepish grin through the mirror.

“That’s kind of the point,” Bruce replied with a smile as he got to work. 

Clint held still as Bruce spread the aloe vera gel across his back and shoulders. He only tensed a few times, but he never pulled in a hissing breath to indicate Bruce had hurt him any more than necessary to apply the gel. 

“There,” Bruce said when he was finished. They were facing each other now so Bruce could get the part of his collar bones and chest that had been burned. “How’s that feel?” he asked, looking Clint in the eyes.

Clint gave him a smile. “I feel goopy, but better,” he said.

Bruce laughed and put a final little bit of aloe vera on his nose. “Well, that’s something,” he said. He leaned in and kissed his cheek before stepping back. “Did you pack a shirt that’s kind of loose?”

“Uh…”

They both knew Clint tended to wear tighter shirts. Less chance of fabric getting in the way of a shot, Clint had explained to him once.

Bruce huffed a laugh. “Well, a muscle shirt might be your best option today.”

“Way ahead of you,” Clint replied, gesturing down at the stack of clothes on the bathroom counter.

They finished cleaning up the hotel room and packing up their things. After a quick breakfast downstairs, they checked out and headed to the rental car. “I’ll drive,” Bruce said. “You’ve done your fair share of driving on this trip.”

“I like driving,” Clint replied even as he tossed the keys to Bruce. “It’s been no trouble.”

They put their bags in the trunk and got settled up front after Bruce dropped the bag of groceries in the back seat. “I know,” Bruce said, shooting him a quick smile as he started the car. “But now you get to enjoy the countryside on the drive back.”

“Believe me, I was enjoying the view just fine,” Clint replied with a smile, easing cautiously back against the seat. He was wearing one of his muscle shirts, a deep purple thing that clung to his form. The bare parts of his back and shoulders rested carefully against the passenger seat. 

Bruce twisted in his seat and pulled out the bottle of aloe vera from the bag in the back seat. He put it in the cup holder between them before pulling out his phone.

Clint looked at the bottle for all of a second before he snorted a laugh. “Subtle.”

“I just don’t like the thought of you hurting,” Bruce replied with a causal shrug. “You get hurt often enough as it is.”

Clint sniffed a little. “No need to point it out,” he protested indignantly, but he was grinning.

Bruce kept his focus on his phone as he pulled up the GPS to get them headed back to the cabin. “It’s a long trip back,” he said. “I want you to be comfortable.”

He looked up when Clint laid a hand on his thigh. When he looked over, he found Clint watching him with a gentle smile on his face, looking touched.

They shared a long look before Bruce felt himself blush a little. He looked back down at his phone and cleared his throat. “So, you know, keep putting more aloe on you as it dries out,” he said, sounding a little flustered even to himself. He let his hand rest upon Clint’s and smiled when Clint shifted his until their palms came together, fingers locking together.

“You’re the doctor,” Clint replied. He then twisted a little to glance at the bag in the back seat. “What else did you get?” There was the sound of a bag being rustled. “And how early did you wake up, if you had time to run out for groceries?”

“It was before the sunrise,” Bruce answered as he separated their hands to put the car in reverse and back out of their parking spot. “There’s water, snacks for the drive…” He shifted gears and started driving. “Painkillers, ice packs…”

Clint laughed and twisted back around. He had a small handful of berries from their adventure on Sunday. He offered Bruce a blackberry and settled in for the drive. “Thank you,” he said. “It’s _really_ not that bad, but it’s nice to know you care.”

“Of course I care,” Bruce replied, glancing briefly over at him before focusing back on the road. “I…”

He looked back at Clint for another moment. Despite the burns on his shoulders, he was still relaxing in his seat and looked at ease as he popped a blueberry into his mouth. He glanced over at Bruce as he trailed off.

Bruce swallowed and faced forward again. Now wasn’t the time. “I don’t like you hurting,” he said again after a moment.

In his periphery, Clint smiled warmly at that and went back to looking out at the buildings they were driving by. Bruce let out a slow breath and focused on getting them to the highway.


	17. Ice Cream

“Natasha,” Bruce said, poking his head out of the front door of the cabin.

It had been a quiet day. Sam had to return to DC for work while Bruce and Clint had been gone, but he was planning on coming back out this weekend. Thor was also gone by the time they got back, having flown off to Europe to spend some time with Jane and her group while he was Earth-side. Tony and Pepper had decided to take one of the rental cars out to a bed and breakfast Pepper had wanted to try out and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow around noon. Steve and Bucky had been here last night, but they and one of the other rental cars were gone when they got up this morning.

As it was, it had just been Clint, Natasha, and Bruce at the cabin today. Bruce had cooked them breakfast and they had taken a walk together afterwards on one of the various nature trails. Bruce had given the two of them some time alone together to start up some laundry from the past few days spent on the road. They had eventually all come back together, though, to enjoy each other’s company.

It was after dinner now, and Natasha had come outside to do some reading. She was curled up on one of the benches, a cup of tea sitting on the little table next to her still steaming gently. She looked up from her book as he appeared in the doorway.

Bruce smiled at her. “What would you say is your favorite fruit combination?” he asked.

Natasha quirked an eyebrow at that before she looked off in thought. “That’s a tough one,” she said after a moment. “Maybe blackberry and lemon.”

“Great,” Bruce replied with a bright smile.

Before he could retreat back inside, she asked “Why?” 

He gave her a secretive little smile. “You’ll see,” he replied. “Be right back!” He ducked back inside and made his way to the kitchen. 

Clint was cleaning the last of the dishes as Bruce stepped into the room. He looked up when Bruce opened one of the overhead cabinets and pulled down a food processor. 

Bruce set the appliance up and started collecting the necessary ingredients and materials. He pulled out the bucket of blackberries and blueberries from the orchard and popped a few blackberries into the food processor to puree. 

As he turned the food processor off, he felt arms wrap around him from behind. Clint molded himself to Bruce’s back and hooked his chin over his shoulder, just watching curiously as Bruce worked. 

Bruce poured the puree through a strainer to collect any seeds or larger chunks before he added some lemon juice and some lemon zest to the puree. In a measuring cup, he poured some half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla extract, mixing it up with a whisk.

He reached over and pulled out a gallon sized ziplock bag. “Can you fill this halfway with ice, please?” Bruce asked, holding the bag up.

“Sure,” Clint said, taking the bag and pulling away. 

As Clint was completing his task, Bruce poured the half-and-half mixture into a pint sized bag and then added the blackberry and lemon puree. He zipped it up and started massaging the bag, mixing everything together. It became a delightful purple color.

“Here you go,” Clint said, returning to the counter.

“Thanks,” Bruce replied, kissing him on the cheek as he took the bag. He added some rock salt and mixed the ice and salt together before adding the pint sized bag and zipping the whole thing closed.

As Bruce started shaking the bag, Clint finally asked. “What are you making?”

“Ice cream,” Bruce responded, still shaking the bag.

“Ice cream?” Clint repeated, sounding both dubious and still curious.

“Yes,” Bruce said, still shaking the bag. “The salt and ice mixture pulls the heat from the interior bag, which then allows the cream to start to freeze. Thus, ice cream. It just takes some manual churning to get the job done.” He gave it a few more good shakes before he held it out to Clint. “Want to keep shaking that so I can get started on yours?”

“Huh,” Clint said, taking the bag from Bruce and starting to shake it up as Bruce had been doing. “I haven’t seen it done like this before.”

“It’s a quick and easy way to do it,” Bruce replied, smiling over at him. “If you could shake that for about five minutes, that’d be great. Then we’ll check to see how soft it is.”

The kitchen was filled with the sound of ice chunks hitting each other in rapid succession as Clint continued to shake the bag. Bruce went about getting the next batch ready. He started with the same half-and-half, vanilla, and sugar combination before he added just a hint of mint extract and mini chocolate chips. This all went into another pint sized baggie, which then went into a gallon sized bag with ice and salt. 

Once everything was all together, Bruce started shaking that bag, making the kitchen even louder. 

Clint finally paused and looked over at Bruce. “I think it’s been five minutes,” he said over the sound of the shaking ice.

“Open it up and take a look,” Bruce instructed, still shaking the bag in his hands.

Clint pulled the gallon sized bag open and pulled out the smaller bag inside. It was a lumpy purple mess inside, and when Clint poked it, it held its shape. “Would you look at that,” Clint said with a wondrous grin. “It worked!”

Clint then set it aside and moved to Bruce’s other side. “Okay, I’m making you some,” he declared eagerly. “What do I do?”

Bruce laughed, but guided Clint through the process. He watched Clint throw some blueberries into the food processor and add some lemon juice and zest. The resulting mixture was a lovely purple color. Clint strained it and then added it to the smaller baggie along with the other ingredients.

By the time Bruce was finished shaking his bag, Clint was shaking the final bag. Bruce picked up the bag with the blackberry-lemon mix and started shaking that one again, just in case it had started melting in the past few minutes.

Finally, all three mixtures were well and truly ice cream. Bruce scooped out some and put them in separate bowls while Clint pulled out some spoons. They made their way to the front porch. 

“Here you are,” Bruce announced as they stepped outside. 

Natasha looked up from her book and set it down when Bruce offered her a bowl. She took it and looked curiously at the contents. “Is this ice cream?” she asked as a smile started to cross her face.

“It is,” Bruce confirmed as he and Clint sat down on one of the other benches together. He smiled when Clint immediately curled against him, careful to mind his healing shoulders. “Let me know if it’s any good.”

He watched as Natasha took a little spoonful of the ice cream and gave it a try. He smiled when her face immediately went blank. She looked over at him as she swallowed and pointed at him with her spoon. 

“Why,” she asked, “do you keep hiding these culinary skills of yours?”

Bruce felt himself flush at the praise, but he laughed. 

“It’s really easy to do, Tasha,” Clint said, grinning over at her as he lightly jostled Bruce. “Bruce showed me how and it’s pretty straight-forward. We can totally do it ourselves without his supervision.”

Clint then gave his ice cream a try. He made a noise that made Bruce blush for completely different reasons. 

“Oh my god, Bruce,” Clint said reverently, looking over at Bruce with wide, wondrous eyes. “You made me mint chocolate chip ice cream. _When_ did we get mint?”

Bruce laughed as Clint leaned over Bruce to move his bowl closer to Natasha, who took a spoonful to try. “You were there when we were grocery shopping,” he replied as she popped the spoon into her mouth.

“That’s very good,” Natasha said, nodding.

“I didn’t see you grab any mint, though!” Clint said, resettling against Bruce with a smile. “You know me far too well.” He kissed Bruce’s cheek and his lips were cold. “Try yours, try yours.”

“Okay,” Bruce said with a smile as he took a scoop of the blueberry lemon ice cream Clint made for him. He tried it. It was the right balance between sweet and tangy, not too much of either so it could let the different flavors mingle together in harmony. It was a good consistency and it was delightfully refreshing.

He hummed and swallowed, nodding. “That’s quite good,” Bruce said, smiling when Clint beamed proudly. “Here.”

There was a passing of the bowls so everyone could try the different flavors. “What made you decide to make ice cream tonight?” Natasha asked once they had all settled in again.

Bruce glanced over at her as he dipped his spoon back into the bowl. “Well, I wanted to thank you,” he said. At her quirked eyebrow, he went on. “Clint mentioned you helped him narrow down some fairs and festivals last week, and I wanted to thank you. We had a great time.”

Natasha looked at him for a moment longer before she smiled. “I’m glad you two got to have some time together,” she said honestly before she looked over at Clint. “You weren’t supposed to mention I helped you.”

“Gotta give credit where credit’s due,” Clint said with a grin before he popped more ice cream into his mouth.

Bruce could hardly argue with that. He was just happy to do something nice for Natasha. It seemed so small in comparison, but judging by the atmosphere of contentedness, he had a feeling they were even.

With that, they settled in, enjoying each other’s company and some homemade ice cream on a warm summer’s night.


	18. Drive-In Theater

“Oh, look at what we saw being advertised at the bed and breakfast,” Pepper said as she placed a brochure down upon the table. 

Everyone leaned in to take a look.

“There are still drive-in theaters around?” Bucky asked, eyeing the brochure skeptically. 

As the morning had worn on, their group had started coming back together. Bucky and Steve had arrived back mid-morning with backpacks, suggesting they had done an overnight hike somewhere along the mountains. Thor had flown in not long after that, bringing with him greetings from Jane Foster and her crew. Tony and Pepper had returned closer to noon, looking well rested.

They had eaten lunch together and hadn’t split for the afternoon yet when Pepper had pulled the brochure from her purse. “There are a handful around Virginia,” she explained. “They’ve been making a comeback in recent years.”

“Huh,” Bucky said, though he did peer over Steve’s shoulder as he picked it up to look it over.

Steve browsed the titles and the schedule until he came to tonight’s showing. He smiled. “Anyone up for seeing _Jurassic Park_?”

==

“Man, I haven’t seen this movie since before joining the Air Force,” Sam said as he moved with Bruce and Clint toward the concession stand. He had arrived in the afternoon and would be spending the weekend with them. “It’ll be weird seeing it on a big screen again.”

“I never saw this one in theaters,” Bruce admitted, joining the long line of other movie-goers. As was normal, since Bruce and Clint were way less likely to be recognized by the general public, they collected the list of refreshments and snacks for the group to pick up. Sam decided to tag along, since he wasn’t part of the initial Avengers line-up and could go out in public without reporters following him.

“Me neither,” Clint said. “It’ll be cool to finally see it on a big screen like it’s meant to be seen.”

More people joined the line behind them. Even for a Thursday night, the nearby drive-in theater was packed. There were families out with their older children, college-aged students hanging out for a night of fun, but Bruce found himself most surprised by the amount of teenagers in attendance. He hadn’t realized the drive-in theater to watch a movie from two decades ago was the place to be. 

“First time for everything,” Sam replied with a smile, “though I will say this is my first time watching a movie at a drive-in theater. I totally forgot these things existed outside of movies.”

Clint nodded. “Right? I think I just didn’t believe they were real, but after seeing them in so many other movies, I guess I just figured they were a thing of yesteryear.”

“Don’t say that to Steve and Bucky,” Sam warned him with a vague smile. 

Clint gave a loose salute to that and they took a few steps forward. They eventually made it to the counter and placed their orders. Way too much money later, they were presented with their snacks and beverages for the evening. Between the three of them, they managed to carry everything back relatively unscathed.

By the time everything was handed out and they had settled in, the radio station they were tuned into started to crackle to life. There were whoops and cheers from the crowd as the projector turned on, filling the large screen across the way with light.

Thor beamed eagerly from the back seat of the rental car before he got out of the car. Before he closed it behind him, he shot Clint and Bruce a bright grin. “Enjoy the film, friends,” he said. He then closed the door and moved to the front of the vehicle, where he sat down and was no longer in view.

Natasha had joined Sam, Bucky, and Steve over in the third rental car, and Tony and Pepper were alone in the other vehicle. 

And now Bruce and Clint were alone inside their car. 

Almost in unison, Clint and Bruce’s hands came together on the center console. 

The movie started.

They sat quietly watching for a few minutes before Clint snorted a laugh to himself. When Bruce glanced over at him curiously, Clint looked at him with a grin. “You know all of those movies with scenes that happen at drive-ins? They always seemed so romantic.”

Over the sounds of gunfire and a man being devoured, Bruce gave a hum. “Velociraptor attacks aren’t romantic to you?” he asked sweetly.

Clint laughed. 

As the chaotic first scene bled away into the introduction of the lawyer, Clint looked back over at him. “As romantic as dinosaur attacks are, in the movies, drive-ins always seem so much more romantic, you know? If this was a movie, we’d be necking by now.”

“ _Necking?_ ” Bruce repeated with a laugh.

“Yeah!” Clint said, grinning with enthusiasm. “This’ll prove difficult in about an hour when there are kids screaming and a T. Rex starts eating people. Kind of hard to make out with violent sound effects.”

Bruce looked over at Clint, trying to bite back a smile and hoping he looked distinctly unimpressed. “You and I both know that is _patently_ untrue.” The façade was immediately broken when Clint grinned proudly over at him and he laughed.

They fell into silence as the movie continued, setting up the plot for the rest of the movie. They had both watched this movie fairly recently, given that it was included on the long list of movies and television shows that Tony had compiled to show Steve to get him familiarized with the 21st Century. They had watched it as a group not long after the team had all moved into the tower, not too long after the Chitauri attack. 

It was probably Bucky’s first time seeing it. Bruce wasn’t 100% sure if Steve was introducing pop culture to Bucky the same way it had been introduced to him. 

When Jeff Goldblum appeared on screen, they started chatting softly again. “I need to see more stuff with him in it,” Clint replied in a whisper, like they were actually in a theater. “Aside from _Independence Day_ , I mean.”

“Has Steve seen that one yet?” Bruce asked softly, glancing over at him.

Clint looked back. “Yeah, you don’t remember? We watched it together as a group.”

“Did we?” Confused, Bruce thought about it for a moment. “No,” he said at length, “I don’t remember that at all. Was it after a mission?”

“Yeah, it was after that guy with the robots,” Clint said.

“Which guy with the robots?” 

Clint opened his mouth to answer, but then he paused as he tried to remember which fight it had been with the guy and his robots. There were a lot of people who tended to attack civilians and cities with robots or weapons of mass destruction. “I don’t remember,” Clint finally admitted. “But it was after one of those fights with the guy and robots.”

“I don’t remember,” Bruce said, shaking his head. “I must have fallen asleep early that night.”

“You did,” Clint said with a little smile, looking back out the windshield. There was a hit of nostalgia on his face as he thought back. “You were all bundled up with a blanket and completely passed out like ten minutes after we started the movie. It was cute.”

Bruce felt himself blush and he huffed a laugh. He also returned his gaze to the screen across the lot of cars. 

And so the movie continued on. When it got to the part where the T. Rex escaped from its paddock, Clint turned a knowing and expectant look over at Bruce. Bruce had to laugh; he kind of had a point. 

Still, their hands remained together throughout the movie atop the center console.


	19. S'mores

Bruce had just finished a chapter when he registered the sound of tires on gravel. He looked up to see a car coming up the driveway. 

It had been a casual day. The group had stuck around the cabin for the most part, just enjoying each other’s company before they split off to do different things around the property. Bruce had come out to the front porch to keep reading the fifth installment of the _Harry Potter_ series in the shade. It was a warm day, but in the shade of the covered porch, the mountainous breezes kept him cool. 

Slipping off his glasses, Bruce watched the car park and the driver’s side door open. He smiled when the driver stepped out.

“Hey Bruce,” Rhodey called, lifting an arm in greeting.

“Hey,” Bruce called back as he stood up, setting his book aside. He walked to the top of the stairs. “I didn’t know you were coming out this way today.”

“I managed to get away early,” Rhodey said as he circled around to the other side of the car, opening the back door and sticking his upper half inside.

“Need a hand with anything?” Bruce asked. He stepped down the stairs and started approaching.

“Nah, I didn’t bring much, thanks,” Rhodey called. He reemerged with a bag and shut the door. “I’m only here for a few days, unfortunately. Duty calls and all that.”

Bruce smiled and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Well, I’m glad you’re able to get away for a little bit,” he said. “This was all kind of last minute.”

“Oh, I—”

He was cut off by the sound of the front door slamming open. Bruce jumped and twisted around in time to see Tony come running off of the deck and straight toward them. The door slammed shut.

Rhodey dropped his bag just in time to catch Tony in a tight hug. He staggered back a few steps, but they stayed upright and embraced fiercely for all of a few seconds before they broke apart. Tony clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re finally here,” he said with a straight face, like he hadn’t just run into his best friend’s arms.

Bruce ducked his head to hide his little snort of a laugh.

“Some of us have to go through proper channels to request time off,” Rhodey explained as he reached down to pick up his bag. He dusted the stray bits of dirt and dead grass from it as he looked back at his friend. His eyes did a sweep. “You look good,” he said at length.

“I always look good, thank you for noticing,” Tony replied airily.

“No, like _you’ve actually slept_ good,” Rhodey clarified, unruffled by Tony’s deflection and powering on with practiced ease. “You should really try to make a habit out of it.”

“Sleep is for the weak,” Tony scoffed.

“That picture Pepper sent me of Hulk cuddling a very sleepy you begs to differ,” Rhodey replied as a smirk started to cross his face.

Tony opened his mouth, but no reply came. He quickly shut it with an audible click of teeth before he shot a narrow-eyed look over at Bruce, like this was his fault.

Bruce only offered him a mildly embarrassed smile and shrugged. He was hardly in a position to argue. 

They were pulled from their bickering by the sound of the front door opening again, gently this time. They turned to find Pepper walking out at a much more sedate pace than Tony had emerged. She smiled warmly as she walked down the steps. “Rhodey!” she greeted him. “I’m so glad you could join us.”

Rhodey immediately smiled back and opened his arms, inviting her in for a hug. “Pepper, dear, thank you for the invite,” he said cordially.

“You two are in cahoots, and I don’t like it,” Tony accused from nearby, but Bruce knew he loved it.

Rhodey and Pepper kept an arm around each other as they turned to smile innocently at Tony. 

Bruce smiled again and stepped away to give them time to reconnect. It had been a while since the three of them were together at the same time. They deserved the chance to talk and catch up. After collecting his book and empty mug, he walked inside to give them some privacy. 

As he walked in, he could hear some ruckus down in the den. He had a feeling the darts tournament was still ongoing. Clint had offered an open challenge to any takers and had roped Bucky, Steve, Thor, and Sam into the game. Bruce and Natasha had declined, opting for a quiet afternoon elsewhere within the cabin. 

He heard a chorus of cheers from downstairs and he smiled to himself. It was nice having most of their group together. It was a shame Jane and her crew were overseas and that Phil couldn’t get away at the moment, otherwise they’d have the full group. It must have been the holidays that they were last all together like this. 

Bruce stepped into the kitchen to wash out his mug and spotted Natasha out on the back porch, under the shade of an umbrella and reading a book. She looked content and at peace. 

She glanced up when he stepped out onto the back porch. “Hey,” she greeted him. “What just happened? It sounded like a herd of animals running down the stairs in there.”

Bruce laughed and sat down at one of the picnic tables. “Rhodey just got here and Tony was excited to see him,” he explained in the simplest terms.

“Ah,” she said with a knowing nod. She then set aside her book and looked at him again. “It’s been a while since we were all together,” she commented. “What are the chances of us having another fire tonight?”

Bruce smiled. “I’d say they’re pretty high.”

==

“Alright, who needs another beer?” Clint said as he stood up, stretching a little. 

It was dark. They had done another cookout to celebrate everyone being together for the first time in months. Bruce and Natasha had gotten the fire going in the fire pit as Thor was manning the grill and slowly they had all congregated around the fire over the course of dinner. They just chatted and caught up with one another for hours, well past the sunset and even as the moon rose overhead. 

It was so nice to see everyone together again. Tony was even more at ease now that he had his best friend here with him. Bruce wasn’t sure when he had last hung out with Rhodey, but judging by how they stayed side by side, he imagined it had been quite a while. Pepper had migrated to Natasha to give her boyfriend time to catch up with Rhodey with just the two of them. 

There were a few voices that chimed up at Clint’s question and Clint retreated inside. The conversation easily picked back up. Rhodey looked back over around the group. “So I managed to get some time off in July. It was like pulling teeth, but I haven’t had a proper vacation in well over a year and it’s high time I use my banked PTO.”

“Hear hear,” Thor agreed heartily as he raised his bottle of beer. 

Rhodey smiled at him for a moment before he looked pointedly over at Tony. “So, you and I are going somewhere.”

“I’m on board,” Tony agreed with a smile. “We still need to do those upgrades on your suit that have been _begging_ for some attention.”

“Deal,” Rhodey replied, grinning. 

Tony looked over at Sam, who was seated on Steve’s left. “How are your wings holding up? Do they need a tuning up, too? We could have an engineering weekend and just fix everyone right up.” 

Sam grinned at the invitation. “I wouldn’t turn that down,” he said.

Clint reemerged from the cabin and handed out the drink orders before he came to a stop behind Bruce’s chair. He let his hands rest on Bruce’s shoulders, where they started massaging the muscles there as they listened to more plans being made. Bruce listened with half an ear, focusing more on Clint’s hands on him.

After a minute, Clint leaned down. “Can you help me with something?” he asked Bruce in a low voice so as not to interrupt the conversation. 

Bruce set aside his drink. “Of course,” he replied softly, standing up to follow Clint. 

“I just need an extra set of hands,” Clint said with a grin as he led them back inside. 

On the kitchen counter was a pile of packages of marshmallows along with boxes of graham crackers and multiple packages of chocolate bars. In a small pile next to the pile of sugary goods were some metal rods, perfect for roasting marshmallows. 

Bruce smiled. “You didn’t want to juggle all of this in a single trip?” he asked knowingly.

Clint grinned as he started loading up his arms with boxes of crackers and chocolate bars. “You know, I may have been in the circus, but even _I’m_ not capable of juggling all of this,” he replied.

Bruce laughed and dutifully started picking up the bags of marshmallows. There were a lot of bags of them. “You know, even considering who is in this group, I don’t think we really needed to get this many bags of marshmallows.”

“I bet you they’ll be all gone by the time we leave here at the end of the month,” Clint said with a goading smile as he moved to stand by Bruce’s side.

“By the end of this trip, sure,” Bruce agreed. “By the end of the night? I really hope not.”

“Now _that_ sounds like a challenge,” Clint replied, grinning at him with a quirked eyebrow. He lightly bumped shoulders with him.

“Please no,” Bruce said with a laugh as he grabbed the metal rods. “Okay, that’s everything. Lead the way.”

They walked back outside to the fire. “Look what we found!” Clint announced as he deposited the packages of graham crackers and chocolate onto the ground. 

“Oh?” Natasha said, putting on a face of exaggerated surprise. “You mean that mysterious pile of groceries on top of the refrigerator weren’t just piles of contraband the owners were trying to hide?” she asked, prompting a laugh from around the fire.

Clint plucked one of the bags of marshmallows from Bruce’s arms and threw it at her head, which she easily caught. “You get to roast yours by hand,” he said.

“That just seems unnecessarily dangerous,” Bruce replied mildly as he set the other bags in his arms down. He started handing out the metal rods.

Thor took the metal rod that Bruce offered him. He looked it over for a moment before he glanced around the fire. “I am afraid I do not quite understand,” he admitted.

“You ain’t alone in that, pal,” Bucky said skeptically. He held a marshmallow between his metal thumb and forefinger and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Steve looked over at his friend and lightly nudged him with his elbow. “We’re making some mores,” he explained.

As understanding dawned on Bucky’s face, everyone else looked curiously over at Steve. Steve glanced around the group. “What?” he asked a little self-consciously. “It’s what the Girl Scouts called them before the war.”

“What are they called now?” Bucky asked. 

“S’mores,” Steve answered, sliding his marshmallow onto the metal rod. “Here, you make them like this. Clint, toss a box of crackers and chocolate over here, please.”

Steve caught one of the packages and Bucky caught the other before the captain started giving a lesson on how to craft a s’more. They passed around a few boxes of crackers and bars of chocolate so supplies were easily within reach. 

Bruce watched Clint settle back into his chair, stick a marshmallow on the end of his metal rod, and then immediately stick the marshmallow into the fire. It very quickly ignited.

Clint pulled the flaming marshmallow from the fire and held it aloft, twisting the rod so the flames crawled along the surface. He must have sensed he was being watched, for he glanced over and found Bruce staring. He grinned. “I like mine a little charred,” he offered as a simple explanation.

“That’s more than _a little charred,_ Bird Feathers,” Tony said from the other side of the fire, sounding vaguely horrified. When they glanced over, they saw him looking at the flaming mass of sugar with disgust.

Without breaking eye contact, Clint brought the fiery marshmallow to his face and blew out the flames. It was a blackened husk of what it had once been. When he put a graham cracker and a piece of chocolate on either side of it to pull it off of the rod, it actually crunched.

Tony shuddered.

Bruce shook his head a little with a smile and started roasting his marshmallow. He watched Bucky and Thor on the other side of the fire, roasting their first marshmallows. Thor’s caught on fire, but he was quick to blow it out. The others were happily roasting marshmallows and chatting. He smiled again when Bucky’s face told him he thought s’mores were a little too sweet. It was a lot of sugar.

“And now to try Clint’s method,” Thor declared before he shoved his next marshmallow directly into the fire.

“Thor, no!” Tony shouted in dismay as Clint cheered him on. 

Bruce laughed.


	20. Baseball

“I can’t believe you’re taking me to a Yankees game,” Bucky groused. He shot a dark look over at Steve even as he swatted him lightly on the arm. “I thought you had _some_ sense left.”

“This team isn’t _the_ Yankees,” Steve tried to protest, but there was still a hint of distaste on his face that had Bruce smiling a little. “They’re just… _Yankees.”_

“Uh huh,” Bucky replied without enthusiasm. 

Over breakfast, the group had been trying to find something to do with their Saturday evening together. Sam had a holiday event at the VA that he needed to get back for by tomorrow afternoon, so he’d be leaving after breakfast in the morning. Steve and Bucky had offered to help out, so they’d be gone for a few days. Rhodey also needed to head out tomorrow to spend some time with his family before getting back to work. 

And so, they had decided to let the four of them figure out what they were going to do with their last evening together. They had parted way for the rest of the morning while Rhodey, Steve, Sam, and Bucky figured out the plan for the night. 

When they had come back together at lunch, it was announced that they’d be going to see a baseball game at one of the nearby minor league stadiums.

No matter how much grousing and growling had aired over the home team’s name, Bruce knew Bucky and Steve enjoyed baseball immensely. He had a feeling it was less about the team name and more poking fun at each other. It helped that Sam liked to egg them on; he seemed to really be enjoying their dilemma.

And despite their complaining, he knew they were excited to get to see a game in person. He wondered when the last time either of them had been to a ball game. It might have been in the 40s, in all honesty. 

There had been some debate on whether the group should split up to avoid being more easily recognizable, but in the end, each other’s company was way more important. Still, they could definitely try to avoid being spotted.

“I can’t believe this is always the go-to disguise,” Clint murmured to him as they were walking to the ticket booth. He pulled the bill of his hat down a little lower over his sunglasses.

Bruce had to agree. Baseball hats, sunglasses, and jackets or hoodies didn’t really seem like the best of disguises, but for whatever reason, the combination always seemed to work. Well, they _usually_ worked, the US Military hunting down a fugitive in Brazil excluded.

It was a little warm to be wearing said jackets/hoodies now, but it was supposed to drop to the low sixties over the course of the ballgame. For now, they were all armed with ball caps and sunglasses.

“What would you suggest?” Bruce asked softly back, reaching up to fiddle with his hat a little.

Clint smiled over at him. “If we had brought some disguise kits with us, we could have gone to _town._ Tasha and I have done each other’s make-up on stealth missions so many times now; we could have done _wonders_ for the rest of the group.”

“That’s definitely a route we could have gone with the right materials,” Bruce mused with a thoughtful nod. “What’s the weirdest undercover persona you’ve ever had to don?”

Clint immediately grinned and launched into the story of the time he had to impersonate an art critic while Tasha and some other agents broke into the basement bunker where they were holding stolen contraband they would be trading for weapons of mass destruction. His job had been to distract the curator so the spies could get in and out without detection.

“Tasha gave me an atrocious goatee and a low ponytail wig,” Clint went on and Bruce laughed as he imagined the outfit. “The fake glasses were a nice touch of—” He gave a loose-wristed motion. “— _sophistication,_ I suppose, but I had to wear an honest-to-god _ascot,_ Bruce. They put me in a pastel suit jacket and told me to sip fine wine and schmooze with the people upstairs. I was so out of my element, I swear.”

“How did you get by?” Bruce asked, grinning as he tried to picture Clint in this scenario. 

“I binge-watched some _Joy of Painting_ and tried to become the perfect mix of asshole and Bob Ross,” Clint replied seriously, prompting Bruce to laugh again. He shook his head with a rueful little smile. “That was the last time Phil put me in a position like that,” he went on. “I was able to hold my own, but I think it was just because the other snooty museum-goers were more confused than offended.”

Natasha, who had been nearby and listening, turned with an amused smile on her face. “It was definitely entertaining listening to you try to mingle,” she added.

“You mean _painful?”_ Clint asked her. He shook his head again and looked back at Bruce. “Yeah, I’m not meant for that kind of work. I mean, I’m all for _fake it ‘til you make it,_ but there’s a limit to it, you know?”

Bruce smiled and curled an arm around him, letting his hand come to a rest on his hip. “Well, thankfully, there’s no need for ascots here.”

“Thank goodness,” Clint replied with a grin so bright it made Bruce’s chest go warm. 

They got their tickets without issue and went off to go find their seats. They were in a section of seats on the third base side of the field, where there were already a few other patrons ready for a night of entertainment. 

Bruce was at the end of a row with access to the stairs, with Rhodey behind him and Natasha in front of him. In Natasha’s row were Bucky, Steve, and Sam, followed by strangers. Clint was sitting next to Bruce with Thor on his other side. Behind him, Tony sat in between Rhodey and Pepper. 

Once they settled in, conversation flowed pretty easily. Sam had twisted in his seat to talk with Thor and explain the basic mechanics of the game to him. Bruce listened with half an ear; he knew the basics of baseball, but he (surprise of surprises) had never been that interested in sports. After he had gone to live with his aunt and her family, he had been a little bit more exposed to sports thanks to his uncle, but it never held his interest for long. 

But he knew sports brought people together. He was sitting in a stadium that was a testament to that. Even Steve and Bucky, both from a different generation, were able to connect with people based on their love of baseball. He knew Sam had invited Steve out to DC to watch the Superbowl of Baseball (whatever it was called) last fall and Steve had been so excited. 

Looking down at him and Bucky now, he could tell they were excited to be here.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Clint rested his arm across the back of Bruce’s chair and started fiddling with the curls against the back of his neck. “So,” Clint began conversationally with a growing smile, “when was the last time you watched a baseball game?”

Bruce snorted a laugh. “I don’t think I have an answer to that,” he said.

“Have you _never_ seen a baseball game before?” Clint asked, suddenly looking a bit more serious, his hand pausing. “That just can’t be.”

Bruce smiled and leaned a little more into Clint’s touch to get him playing with his hair again. “I don’t think I’ve ever watched a full game,” he said, “but I’ve definitely seen some parts of games before. It’s kind of hard not to. I’ve just never gone out of my way to watch it. How about you?”

Clint offered a shrug. “Steve and I will watch games every now and then,” he said. He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Is that the last time you watched a baseball game? That time you joined us?”

“Was that what we were watching?” Bruce asked with a teasing grin.

Clint grinned back and lightly jostled him. “You were reading something on your tablet, so you weren’t paying attention.”

“Seems about right,” Bruce replied.

It was then that the speakers around the stadium cut off the music that had been playing and the announcer began to speak, signaling the start of the game. There were cheers around the stadium and Bruce politely clapped along, prompting an amused laugh from Clint. 

The lineup for the different teams was announced and the crowd cheered, and then the game truly began. Even if baseball wasn’t his thing, it was still nice to see his friends engaged in something together. Clint got to talking with Thor about some of the technical aspects of the game. Natasha kept up a teasing dialogue with Bucky even as Steve, Bucky, and Sam watched avidly. Behind him, Rhodey and Tony were talking to one another and Pepper, like him, had taken to people-watching. 

She caught his eyes and gave him a smile. Bruce smiled back. Like him, she was happy to watch everyone else enjoy something together than watch the game. 

And so he settled in, happy in knowing his friends, his family, were having a good time.

==

There was some sort of competition going on down near the dugout on the other side of the baseball diamond in between innings when his phone buzzed in his pocket. There were some kids down on the field with the team mascot—a cow, for whatever reason—competing for a team jersey. 

Bruce pulled his phone from his pocket and saw it was a message from Pepper. _Want to go explore the stadium a little?_

Bruce glanced over his shoulder at her and saw she was already looking at him. Once she saw he was looking, she smiled and tipped her head back toward the opening that would take them to the interior of the stadium, away from the crowd and the actual game.

He smiled and leaned over to Clint. “I’ll be back,” he murmured before kissing him on the cheek, tipping his head so the bill of his hat wouldn’t connect with his boyfriend’s head.

“Want some company?” Clint asked as he was pulled away from his conversation with Thor.

“Pepper and I are just going to go stretch our legs,” he said.

Clint gave him a thumbs up and returned his attention to what was happening on the field. 

Bruce let Pepper lead the way up the stairs to the opening that led to the interior of the stadium. Once they got inside away from the majority of the noise, he smiled over at her. “Needed a break?” he asked sympathetically.

She returned his smile with one of her own. “I figured you could use one, too,” she said. “I never took you for much of a sports guy.”

“You’d be right,” Bruce agreed easily. “It’s nice to see everyone else having fun, though.”

“It is,” Pepper said with a nod. She then smiled a little ruefully. “Still, I needed a break.”

Bruce laughed. She grinned and then linked arms with him. “Shall we explore, then?” Bruce asked.

“Let’s,” Pepper agreed.

There was a great deal of history about the stadium and the team. They took the time to read the different placards and murals that showcased the history of the ballpark. There were black and white photographs of the other events the stadium used to be used for, including horse shows and fairs. 

There was a tickle in the back of his head as they walked. He hazarded a quick casual glance over his shoulder. There were still a lot of people around, either also stretching their legs, visiting the restroom, or grabbing something to eat or drink at the different concession stands. No one seemed to be staring at them, except— 

His eyes zeroed in on a young man who was watching them. 

Bruce kept his gaze passive as he continued looking around at their surroundings, but each time he glanced over at this young man, he found him watching them. The guy had a ball cap on with a logo on it, but he was too far away to really get a good look at it. It didn’t look like the logos for either of the sports teams playing today.

In his head, Hulk’s curiosity was perked. _‘Threat?’_

_‘I don’t think so,’_ he replied back. The guy didn’t look hostile, just eager and like he was working up the courage to walk over. 

He leaned in a little to Pepper. “We’ve been spotted,” he said lowly.

Pepper glanced at him. Her eyes widened slightly when she looked at his eyes and he realized they must have been shifting in color. 

“Nothing dangerous,” he reassured her. “Just a journalist, I think.”

Hulk snorted in his mind and immediately went back to sleep. Clearly he thought there was no threat here.

“Oh,” Pepper said, immediately relaxing. She then sighed. “Well, I suppose it was bound to happen with all of us here together like this.”

They moved to the next exhibit and when Bruce risked a glance back over, he saw the guy was digging around in his backpack. He pulled out a notepad. Yep, definitely a reporter.

“Think we can convince them to make sure they leave everyone else alone?” Pepper asked casually, not looking away from this display.

Bruce smiled at that. “I think there’s a possibility,” he replied.

Pepper gave a little nod and looked back up at him. “Can you flag him down?”

Bruce nodded and glanced back over at the guy. This time, he didn’t look away until the young man realized he had been caught staring. The journalist immediately blushed and looked off, trying to look innocent and utterly failing.

Bruce snorted a little laugh. “Oh yeah, you can absolutely get him to leave everyone else alone,” he said to Pepper without looking away.

“Yeah?” Pepper asked.

“I think he’s a little star struck,” Bruce commented.

“Oh good,” Pepper replied, sounding a bit like Natasha for a moment.

Bruce laughed. “Be gentle, Ms. Potts,” he told her, glancing back for a moment to smile at her.

“Whatever do you mean, Dr. Banner?” Pepper asked him innocently as she slipped into the public persona of Stark Industries CEO, Ms. Virginia “Pepper” Potts.

Bruce huffed another little laugh and looked back at the journalist, whose face was still faintly red. Their eyes met again and Bruce offered him a smile and he tipped his head in an invitation to come over. 

The young man’s eyes widened again, but he obviously wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity. He quickly started to make his way over.

“Oh man,” the young man said as he reached them, still looking a little awed. He stared for a moment longer before he visibly shook himself. “I’m sorry to have been caught staring,” he apologized. “I just…didn’t expect to see you folks down in these parts.” He offered a hand. “Billy Bjorns. I, uh, I work for _The Southwest Times.”_

“Mr. Bjorns, nice to meet you,” Bruce replied politely, returning the hand shake. Now that the guy was closer, he could tell he was young. No older than twenty-five, if that. The logo on his hat, now that Bruce could actually read it, was the name of the newspaper he worked for. He had a lanyard with his ID hanging from it and a pen tucked behind his ear. 

The journalist blushed again and kept shaking his hand. “Uh, just Billy is fine, Dr. Banner,” he said.

“Billy, then,” Bruce amended. He glanced over at Pepper.

Pepper smiled at Billy and offered her hand. “Ms. Potts, a pleasure to meet you, Billy,” she offered sweetly as the journalist took her hand in a handshake. “And I assure you it’s no trouble at all. We’re here in the area on vacation, actually.”

“Vacation! That’s great,” Billy said excitedly. 

“Yes,” Pepper agreed easily, “so we’ve been trying to keep a low profile while we’re here. You understand, right?”

Billy nodded at once. “Yes, I—oh.” Understanding dawned on his face and he suddenly looked a little mortified. “ _Oh._ I-I’m so sorry. I swear I haven’t told anyone you or the rest of the team is here.”

Pepper smiled at that. “Thank you,” she said graciously. “It’s been so long since we’ve had the opportunity to spend time together outside of work, so we’re hoping to spend some uninterrupted time together tonight before we have to split up again to return to work.”

“Right, of course,” Billy nodded. He then looked a little forlorn and sheepish. “So, uh…I guess there’s no way I could trouble you for a quick interview then, huh?”

Pepper looked off as if she was thinking about it, but Bruce knew it was a play. He managed to keep a straight face and slipped his hands into his pockets. Pepper had worked with the media for as long as she had known Tony Stark; she knew how to play a journalist. This young man never stood a chance.

“Well,” Pepper said after another moment of faux-deliberation, “I suppose in exchange for your guarantee that neither us nor the rest of the Avengers will be approached or interviewed, and that you hold off on publishing and posting photographs until Monday at the earliest, then Dr. Banner and I could answer a few of your questions.”

“Photographs?” Billy repeated hopefully.

Pepper smiled and cocked her head slightly, looking him over with a bartering eye. “Have we got a deal, then, Billy Bjorns of _The Southwest Times?”_

The smile that lit up this young man’s face had Bruce smiling, too. Pepper just made his night.

“Y-Yes!” Billy agreed, shaking her hand again. “Yes, of course! You have my guarantee, Ms. Potts.”

The three of them then moved off to a little bit quieter of a spot, away from most of the crowd. Bruce glanced over at Pepper and smiled at the little satisfied look on her face. Once they found the right spot, Billy flipped through his notepad and grabbed the pen from behind his ear.

“Okay,” he said, like he was psyching himself up. “I’ve already done a few interviews tonight, so I’ll ask you those questions and a few additional ones, too, if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” Pepper agreed. 

“Great, great,” Billy said, grinning at her momentarily before he focused back on his notepad. “Okay, how do you feel the Pulaski Yankee’s season is going so far?”

Bruce and Pepper stared at him for a moment and it immediately became clear that Billy wrote for the sports section of the newspaper. Bruce suddenly felt like a fish out of water.

Pepper, on the other hand, quickly put on a smile. “Well, from what I’ve seen tonight, it looks like they’ve got a fine roster this year,” she said easily and Bruce looked over at her a little in awe. “That triple in the second inning was phenomenal. These gentlemen have the makings of a great team. They should be very proud.”

Billy nodded as he took down the quote, looking pleased as punch.

As he was writing, Pepper glanced briefly up at Bruce, her eyes telling him to play along.

And so the interview went. They were probably the least equipped people of the group to be answering questions about sports, or about baseball at least. But Pepper was able to turn any lack of knowledge about the team and sport in general into commentary on what she had seen tonight, able to field any question the journalist had with ease. She had a real skill for it. 

Bruce just watched the whole thing in amazement. Even Hulk had woken back up to listen in. Bruce could practically feel his alter ego grinning ear to ear at the cunning display.

His answers weren’t nearly as elegant or poised, but he could absolutely agree with Pepper’s observations. The team seemed to be doing well, if the cheers from the spectators were anything to go by. 

Finally, Billy glanced up. “Okay, thank you guys so much for your time. Last question: what made you decide to come out here for your vacation?”

Pepper glanced over at Bruce and made a gesture, offering him the opportunity to answer first. 

Bruce smiled. This one he could answer truthfully and with some authority. “Well,” he began, “we felt some time out in the countryside would benefit us all. We’ve been cooped up in New York City for quite some time now. Getting out into the countryside, getting some quiet time and some fresh air has done wonders for us all. There is a certain peace that only the mountains can offer, and we could all use a little peace right now.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Pepper added, smiling up at him. 

They posed for a photograph in front of one of the historical placards and also took a selfie with Billy. The journalist grinned down at his phone in such delight before he shook hands with them again. “You have just made my night, holy cow,” he said with a breathless little laugh. “Thank you both again.”

“You’re very welcome, Billy,” Pepper said as she was shaking his hand. “Remember your promise, okay?”

“Oh, of course,” Billy said with a fervent nod. “I’ve seen the way the paparazzi come after you guys. I completely understand why you’d need a break from all of that.”

Bruce huffed a little laugh at that. “Thank you for understanding.”

Billy smiled up at him. “For sure. I don’t want to take away from the peace you all have found out here.” He gave a little tip of his hat and took a step back. “Thank you both again. And thank you for all that you do.”

And then he was gone.

They watched him wander back toward where the game was happening before they glanced at one another. Bruce gave Pepper a secretive little smile, still completely impressed. “You handled that beautifully,” he complimented her. “Well done.”

Pepper smiled back at him, dropping the professional persona and laughing. “I swear, I panicked for a moment there when I realized he was going to ask us baseball questions.”

Bruce laughed too. “Well, you handled it way better than I did. That was incredible.”

Pepper tipped her head graciously and linked arms with him again. “Shall we return to the stands? We’ve been gone for a while.”

“I think you’re right,” Bruce said. “Let’s head back.”

When they got back to their seats, Tony looked up at Pepper. “Where did you two disappear to?” he asked as Pepper slid past him and back into her seat.

Pepper offered a vague little shrug. “Just exploring,” she replied.

Bruce sat back down in his seat and immediately felt Clint’s arm lay across his shoulders. “You two were gone for a while,” Clint said as he looked Bruce over. “Everything okay?”

Bruce smiled and reached up to link fingers with the hand on his shoulder. “Just fine,” he answered. “What did we miss?” he asked, glancing back at the field. 

Clint smiled and gave his hand a squeeze before launching into a particularly good play. Bruce listened, happy to hear Clint talk about something he found exciting. 

Later, as the teams were swapping positions on the field again, Clint gave his fingers a gentle squeeze to get his attention. “Seriously, though,” Clint asked once Bruce looked over, “you okay?”

That feeling of warmth spread through his chest again to see Clint looking him over with gentle concern. Bruce smiled and reached up with his other hand to pull off his ball cap. “Our go-to disguise didn’t quite work as we had hoped,” he answered, looking at his hat briefly. When Clint suddenly looked more guarded, Bruce gave his hand a squeeze. “Pepper took care of it. We just did a quick interview with a kid from the local paper. Nothing to worry about.”

Looking a bit more at ease, Clint smiled. “Does that mean I get to play with your hair for real now?” he asked, reaching up to ruffle his hair. “Cause it’s kind of hard to do it with a hat on.”

Bruce laughed and lightly swatted his hand away to put his cap back on. “Let’s save that for later, okay?”

Clint gave a hum at that, smiling in a way that made Bruce feel a little breathless. “I’m going to hold you to that,” Clint said softly.

There was suddenly a cheer that rang up through the crowd and their focus was returned to the baseball diamond.


	21. Father's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, just a note on this one, this chapter deals with some topics that might not be easy to read. Check the end notes if you want to be prepared. Stay safe and take care of yourself.

It was the sensation of someone kissing the back of his shoulder that brought him up from sleep. As consciousness returned to him, Bruce drew in a deep breath and he felt the lips on his shoulder still, but not leave.

“Morning,” came Clint’s sleep-rough voice. 

Just the sound of it—deep and rough and _lovely_ —made Bruce smile and open his eyes. He carefully rolled over until he was facing Clint. “Good morning,” he replied softly with the hand gestures Clint taught him for _good morning_ in sign language. 

Clint smiled at that, the best kind of smile. The lines around his eyes crinkled and he just looked so sleep-soft. His hair was wild and his face was still half-mashed into the pillow. The blanket was resting halfway down his torso, leaving his bare upper half exposed to the cool summer morning. 

Bruce stared at him. He loved seeing Clint like this in the morning. On the rare lazy mornings they got to share together, he loved just looking at his guy, still half-asleep and loose and well rested, just so content to share the moment with Bruce. He loved it.

Bruce reached out to lightly trace the bare skin of his arm and shoulder before he let his hand rest against Clint’s neck. His thumb lightly stroked along his jaw, feeling the stubble there even as he just kept looking at him.

Clint was still looking at him too and he smiled. “What?” he asked softly.

It was a simple question, but it was almost impossible to answer. How could he convey everything into a phrase he could say out loud? He was feeling so much; there wasn’t a way to put it into words. 

Bruce just smiled, not taking his eyes away from his guy. “You,” he answered.

The light that appeared in Clint’s eyes at that made Bruce feel that tingly sensation all over. A gentle blush appeared across the side of his face that Bruce could see and he smiled at the sight of it. It wasn’t easy to make Clint blush, so he always treasured the times he got to see it.

“Sap,” Clint said fondly, twisting his head just enough to press a kiss against Bruce’s thumb. He then pushed himself up until he was sitting against the headboard.

Bruce did the same, smiling when he saw the pillow impressions on Clint’s face as Clint reached over to the nightstand to grab his hearing aids. As Clint was putting them in, he glanced at the window. It looked like the sun was just starting to rise.

“I was going to make breakfast this morning for the group,” Clint said, turning back around once his aids were in. “Want to help?”

“Of course,” Bruce answered, smiling at the prospect of cooking together.

They shared a quick shower and were downstairs before the rest of the group was up and moving within the cabin. A glance around the kitchen showed that someone had already set the timer on the coffee machine, as there was a full pot of coffee ready. Bruce figured Steve and Bucky were probably already up, getting their morning run in. 

Getting to cook with Clint was one of Bruce’s favorite things. They moved around the kitchen like a well-oiled machine. They handed each other different things and there were casual touches as they moved by. Bruce fixed up two casseroles—one savory and one sweet—while Clint went about whipping up dishes on the stovetop. Once the casseroles were in the oven to bake, Bruce moved off to start chopping different fruits. They had ten people to feed; it was at times like feeding a small army, but Bruce felt secure and relieved in knowing none of it would go to waste.

Sure enough, a little later as Clint was fixing up some scrambled eggs and Bruce was slicing up some watermelon, Bruce heard the front door open. He had heard movement upstairs a little earlier, so he knew people would start converging for breakfast here shortly.

There was a pause in the other room before he heard approaching footsteps. “Damn,” Sam said as he entered the doorway, looking over the spread that had already been completed. He was wearing a sweater that was partially soaked with sweat. “I should do breakfasts with you guys more often.”

As Sam ducked out of the doorway to head upstairs, likely to shower, Steve and Bucky walked in. They weren’t out of breath and they looked like they hadn’t just run miles and miles. They both got glasses and filled them with water from the tap. “You fellas need a hand?” Steve asked.

“We’re just about done,” Clint said from the stove. “If you wanted to start seeing who’s awake and letting them know breakfast is ready in five, though, that’d be nice.”

“You got it,” Steve said with a nod before disappearing from the kitchen.

Bucky stayed behind, watching them work from the other side of the kitchen. He had his jacket’s sleeves rolled up, exposing his forearms. It looked like he had gotten a decent night’s sleep, for the perpetual bags under his eyes were a little less dark this morning. 

Still, he looked a little unsure of himself, left to his own devices with people he was still getting to know. He was fiddling with the glass in his hand.

Bruce offered him a kind smile. “If you did want to help, Bucky, could you grab the dishes from the strainer?”

Bucky looked at him before he nodded and stepped further into the kitchen, appearing almost relieved at having a task to do. 

Within a short span of time, the rest of the house was awake and breakfast was served. The sun was up by this point and the morning was warming up, so they took their plates outside to enjoy the cool morning air and spend the last little bit of time together. 

“Are you sure you have to leave today?” Tony asked Rhodey as the meal started to wrap up. “I mean, you could totally play hooky from the Air Force tomorrow.”

“Right,” Rhodey drawled, leveling his friend with a look, “I’m sure that’d go over swimmingly with my superior officer.”

“What’s one day of hooky?” Tony asked.

As the two of them fell into playful bickering, Sam looked over at Steve and Bucky. “You two sure you want to come back to DC with me? No pressure if you’d rather stay out here. I mean, I wouldn’t blame you,” he added, looking out over the trees surrounding the yard.

Steve glanced over at Bucky, eyebrows raised.

Bucky looked back before he rolled his eyes and focused on Sam. “Yes, we’re sure,” he answered.

Steve smiled into his next sip of coffee and laughed when Bucky caught him smiling and elbowed him in the side.

On the other side of the table, Natasha had talked Thor into going on a hike with her and invited Tony and Pepper to join them. Pepper declined for the both of them, saying they were going to stick around the cabin today since she would need to do some telework tomorrow.

Bruce looked over everyone with a contented little smile on his face. He wished they got to spend more mornings like this, just eating together and chatting about plans and anything else that came up. He held his mug of tea between his hands and let the ceramic warm his palms even as his chest felt full and warm.

Clint was a warm presence next to him, also just looking out over their group of friends—their family. He wasn’t smiling, but Bruce knew how to spot contentment on his face. 

Bruce let one of his hands leave the warmth of his mug and planted it instead on Clint’s knee beneath the picnic table. Clint glanced over at him for a moment before he smiled and leaned a little more against him. 

“Want to do a picnic lunch somewhere today?” Clint asked him in a low voice, letting his chin rest upon Bruce’s shoulder.

Bruce smiled at him and lightly tipped his head to bump their foreheads together. “That sounds nice,” he said. 

Clint smiled happily at that. “Awesome. Just you and me.”

At Clint’s expression, Bruce felt that happy feeling in his chest intensify a little. “Just you and me,” he agreed softly. Maybe this would be his chance to tell him.

==

“Jeez, you can’t escape from radio commercials, I swear,” Clint muttered as the current radio station started playing an advertisement for a mattress store. He reached over and started fiddling with the knob, trying to find a station that was playing music.

Bruce let him play with the radio while he kept looking out at the passing countryside. He wasn’t sure where Clint was taking them, but he knew it would be great as long as they were together. He bit back a sheepish little smile at that thought. Clint was right to call him a sap this morning. It was hard not to, though, when it was just the two of them and Bruce kept thinking about how much he loved this man. He wanted to tell him. 

He was sure Clint already knew, but he wanted to tell him, to say the words out loud, to put the words out into the universe. _I love you._

He was going to tell him.

Clint was still switching from radio station to radio station, pausing each time just long enough to determine if what they were hearing was a jingle or an actual song. He flipped to a different station and paused to listen.

It was long enough for the jingle to end and the next commercial to start. _“This Father’s Day, show your—”_

Clint swore and quickly flipped the station, but it was too late.

Bruce blinked and felt a chill wash over him. He had lost track of the days.

It was Father’s Day.

There was an enraged snarl in his head and Bruce had to draw a slow breath in to keep Hulk calm. His eyes slipped shut as he focused inward. In his anger, Hulk was inarticulate, just anger and growls and snarls, the fury of a hurt boy who knew no other way to express that hurt than _rage._

Bruce took a few deep breaths to calm him down, soothing him from any memory he had of the man that was their father. 

After some time, Hulk calmed down enough to not feel the urge to burst out and protect and he finally heard Bruce’s soothing litany of _we’re safe, he’s gone, we’re safe, he’s gone._

 _‘Bad man hurt,’_ Hulk grumbled at last, sounding angry and upset.

 _‘Not anymore,’_ Bruce replied in his head, trying to project calm. _‘He’s gone.’_

 _‘Hurt us,’_ Hulk snarled, but he calmed at the gentle shushing from Bruce. _‘Hulk protect,’_ he added a moment later, a promise.

 _‘And Bruce protect,’_ Bruce said gently. _‘We’re strong together, so we’re safe. He’s gone. We’re safe.’_

With a few more grumbles, Hulk finally calmed down enough to where Bruce’s mind was quiet. In the hush, he realized that the radio had been turned off and that they were no longer moving. 

Bruce blinked his eyes open and lifted his head to look out the windshield. He wasn’t sure when he had bowed his head or how much time had passed. They had pulled over off of the highway; cars continued to zip past them at dizzying speeds, off to destinations unknown. He glanced over at Clint.

Clint had his hands on the steering wheel in a tight grip and his jaw was set. He had a carefully neutral expression on his face, but Bruce knew him well enough to know he was trying to hide he was distressed. 

He must have noticed Bruce move in his periphery, for Clint turned his head and looked at him, his expression softening. He must have seen Bruce’s eyes changing colors, for a look of worry flashed briefly across his face before smoothing out. “You okay?” he asked.

Bruce nodded. “Yeah, we’re okay,” he said. “Sor—”

“Don’t apologize, Bruce,” Clint cut him off, giving him a look.

Bruce smiled a little sheepishly and glanced out at the cars moving past. 

As they sat there in the tense interior of the vehicle, Bruce realized something. That VA thing happening tonight was probably a Father’s Day event. Rhodey was heading off to see his family today, probably to celebrate the holiday with his parents. Pepper and Tony were staying together today in the cabin, and Rhodey had given Tony an extra tight embrace before he left. 

But no one had mentioned anything about what day it actually was.

And then there was Clint, who had woken him up so they could cook together, something they both loved doing with one another. They were going out for a picnic and possibly a nature walk. Clint had been adamant about not listening to the commercials on the radio the whole drive so far, flipping from station to station so they only caught snippets of different songs at a time, just because he knew the commercials would be relentless about the different Father’s Day sales going on today.

Everyone had been careful not to mention what day it actually was.

Bruce looked back over at Clint and felt himself smile at just how _kind_ and _good_ Clint was. He was going to try passing the day without even letting Bruce remember what day it was, just because he knew holidays like this normally slipped his mind, and when they didn’t, they _hurt._ Clint, even with his own troubled history with his father, had gone out of his way to make this day easier for Bruce. God, he loved this man.

At Bruce’s smile, Clint looked slightly cautious even as a smile started to slowly appear on his face. “What are you smiling about?” he asked.

“You,” Bruce answered, not looking away. “I see what you’re doing.”

Clint’s expression went carefully neutral and he glanced back out the windshield. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said in what he clearly thought was an innocent tone.

Bruce leaned across the center console and kissed his cheek. “You’re the kindest man I know,” he said, drawing back enough to let Clint look over at him, bring them face to face. He smiled at the open expression that Clint’s face quickly fell into and the faint blush that crossed his cheeks. “You’ve been trying to hide what today is.”

They stared at one another for a moment before Clint cleared his throat and looked briefly back out the windshield, flustered. Bruce smiled at that and backed off just slightly, though he remained leaned over the center console. 

Clint looked back at Bruce. “Yeah,” he admitted softly, still blushing faintly. “I…I just wanted today to be a nice, you know? Without…without the reminders.”

Bruce felt his smile soften and he stared at Clint openly. This man…

“Today _has_ been nice,” Bruce told him. “You’ve been so good to me, Clint, even with your own history with your father. But you don’t need to take on the burden just for me. We can share it.”

Clint smiled a little at that and ducked his head a little. “It’s the first time we’ve shared the holiday together as a couple,” he said after a moment. “I know it’s hard on you.”

“And it’s hard on you, too,” Bruce reminded him gently.

They had spent the day together last year. It had been before they were dating, when they would spend time together as friends. It had been early on when they were dancing around each other and the potential for _more._ They’d spent the day together watching bad movies and laughing and trying not to think about what day it was they were meant to be celebrating. They had tried not to think about drunken fathers who killed the people around them. It had been hard, but with each other there, it had been nice.

Bruce carefully cupped Clint’s cheek and brought his eyes back up. “So let’s take it on together, okay?” he suggested. “It’s better together.”

He watched as Clint’s eyes focused on his and he watched as Clint’s expression softened even more. They moved in unison for a kiss that turned into an embrace over the center console. It was a little awkward, but it was perfect and just what they needed. 

Finally, they broke apart to just look at each other, their hands still on each other as comforting points of contact. A moment passed before they both smiled and laughed a little. 

“Shall we keep going, then?” Clint asked. 

“Yeah,” Bruce answered, still smiling at him. “Maybe without the radio this time?”

“Yeah, no, without the radio sounds awesome,” Clint agreed immediately, prompting another little huff of laughter from Bruce. Clint smiled at the sound and shifted the car into gear to get them back on the highway. 

Once they were back to speed and were easily cruising with the rest of traffic, Clint caught his hand and ran his thumb along Bruce’s knuckles. “Are you okay, though?” he asked after a few moments, glancing briefly away from the road to look at him. “You were gone for a few minutes.”

“It’s gotten easier since Hulk and I started talking,” Bruce replied. “But still, there are things that upset him…upset both of us, really.”

In his mind, Hulk grumbled a little.

“I get that,” Clint murmured softly. 

When Bruce looked over at him, Clint was staring out at the highway and his expression was serious. Bruce gave his fingers a gentle squeeze. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Me?” Clint asked. “My nefarious plans for the day have gone up in smoke, but yeah,” he answered, turning to him with a tense little smile.

Bruce leveled him with a look that had Clint’s smile turning more genuine. “You mean your nefarious plans to not remind me of what day it was so I could be spared the reminder while you dealt with it on your own?” He paused for effect. “ _So_ nefarious.”

“Hey now,” Clint protested, but he was grinning. “I was doing something nice.”

“I appreciate that, I really do,” Bruce replied, “but you don’t have to make that sacrifice.” He gave Clint’s hand another little squeeze. “It’s hard to handle that kind of stuff on your own, but we’re stronger when we’re together.”

Clint swallowed and didn’t say anything for a moment. There was just the sound of the tires moving along the highway beneath them and the rushing wind around them. 

Then Clint looked over at him with an achingly open expression and a smile and Bruce felt that rush of warmth come over him again. This man was just so kind and it made Bruce’s heart beat a little harder in his chest. He loved this man so much.

“Yeah,” Clint finally replied. He drew Bruce’s hand up to his lips and kissed his knuckles. “Yeah, we’re better together.”

Bruce smiled at that and their hands settled back on the center console. He gave Clint’s hand another squeeze before he looked back out the windshield. “So where are we headed?”

As Clint launched into a description of where they would be picnicking, their hands remained together. The topic of Father’s Day might have been dropped, but Bruce knew from experience it would be on the back of their minds for the rest of the day. Still, it was nice to share the day with another person, a person he loved. They were better together, and navigating days like today was always easier with a loved one near.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has references to domestic and child abuse. Just wanted to put that warning out there. Take care of yourself and stay safe.


	22. Thunderstorm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also a warning on this one! Check the end notes for the warning!

It was still dark out when Bruce’s eyes shot open. There was a sickening heaviness in his stomach and he could feel his heart beating hard in his chest and ears. Over the sound of his own fast breathing, he heard the heavy rain pattering against the window and the rustling of leaves as a gust of wind passed over. Internally, Hulk was snarling and growling.

There was a flash of light that lit the room up for the briefest of moments, and he held his breath as—

A great crack of thunder shook the cabin and Bruce flinched.

Hulk roared back at the thunder.

The sudden jerk of his muscles must have jarred Clint a little, for Bruce vaguely heard him wake up with a snort. Bruce couldn’t see him in the dark, but he felt him shift as he looked around the room.

There was another flash of lightning, followed swiftly by another explosive crash of thunder. The storm was overhead. Bruce stared helplessly up into the darkness, silently panicking.

His head was filled with the roars of Hulk and his body was reacting to the second-hand terror coming from his alter ego. He had never really liked thunderstorms growing up; sudden loud noises had never meant anything good when he was a child. That fear had become a distaste as he had gotten older. He could respect the science behind what caused lightning and the awesome power it held, but it was something he could appreciate from a distance. 

And then the accident had happened.

And then he was suddenly _terrified_ of thunderstorms again.

It had only gotten worse in the years after the experiment. What had previously been a relatively short list of things associated with loud noises meaning bad things had expanded wildly, now including tank fire, missiles, and other things that caused pain. 

It was different when he was awake and ready for it, for he could then mitigate the fear in him. He and Hulk were ready in a battle when Thor used his thunderous abilities. They didn’t necessarily _like_ it, but they could be ready for it and not let it catch them unawares and freeze them up on the battlefield. 

It was when they weren’t expecting it that the panic and fear overwhelmed them.

Another burst of light came in from the window and Bruce slammed his eyes shut as another booming crack of thunder rolled over them. Hulk roared back, filling him with his terror and rage and oh god, he couldn’t—

A hand came to rest on his arm, urgent and solid, and Bruce immediately twisted toward Clint, latching onto him. 

Clint pulled him to his chest, wrapping his arms around him and letting one hand cradle the back of Bruce’s head. He didn’t know if Clint was saying anything; he could only hear the cracks of thunder and the resounding roaring in his head and his rapidly beating heart. He tried to focus on his breathing and the secure grounding feeling of arms around him, of Clint’s chin atop his head as Bruce hid his face against Clint’s throat. 

He flinched at another awful crack of thunder and squeezed his eyes more tightly shut against the renewed howls in his head and fresh pulse of _fear_ that coursed through him. He couldn’t even try to calm Hulk down; he was drowning in the torrent of terror and rage. It was everything he could do just to keep trying to breathe and not let Hulk out to fight the thunderstorm.

The grounding touch of Clint around him helped. Clint was holding him tightly, an anchor in the storm, and Bruce clung to that desperately. He eventually registered Clint’s steady breathing against him and he tried to match it. 

Outside and inside, the storm raged on and Bruce held on. 

Finally, after what felt like ages, the thunder went from deafening cracks, to impressive booms, and then finally to distant rumbles. As the storm passed, Hulk’s answering roars finally began to quiet down enough for Bruce to try calming him. It took what felt like hours—Hulk was furious and frightened and distraught—but the words finally started to pierce through the storm of rage. 

And as Hulk calmed down, Bruce could start to understand his surroundings again. It was still terribly windy outside and rain continued to smack against the window and pummel the roof overhead. Clint was still a grounding point, holding steady and not letting go. He could finally hear Clint gently shushing him at times, offering gentle murmurs of comfort.

At last, Bruce felt he had something of a decent grasp on himself and he opened his eyes. He was slow to loosen his hold on Clint, but Clint kept him steady and at once, the tension in his limbs went loose and Bruce sagged against him, exhausted.

Clint went quiet, but he started lightly running his fingers through his hair in a soothing pattern Bruce focused on. 

The storm continued outside, but the worst of it seemed to be over. Bruce kept quietly catching his breath and calming both himself and Hulk down. 

Finally, Bruce drew in a shaky but deep breath and let it out slowly. Clint’s hand paused in his hair and he was ready when Bruce drew away slowly. As Bruce leaned back, Clint let his hands slid along his back to his arms, no longer holding, but still offering grounding support. He scooched down the mattress so he was face to face with Bruce. 

It was still impossibly dark, but the gesture was appreciated.

“Thank you,” Bruce finally whispered into the darkness, kind of hating how his voice shook. When Clint was quiet, Bruce remembered he didn’t have his hearing aids in. He instead let his hand reach up and take a hold of Clint’s, shifting until Bruce’s hand was curled against Clint’s palm. He spelled out _t-h-a-n-k-y-o-u_ against his palm.

“You don’t have to thank me, Bruce,” Clint replied quietly. 

There was a distant rumble of thunder and Bruce felt himself stiffen slightly as Hulk growled in his head, but he quickly relaxed. In lieu of answering out loud, Bruce drew Clint’s hand in and pressed a kiss to his knuckles.

In the next flash of lightning, Bruce caught a brief glimpse of Clint watching him before the room was enveloped in darkness again.

“You want to go make some tea?” Clint asked.

That sounded amazing, actually.

Bruce made the sign for _yes_ against Clint’s palm.

“Okay,” Clint replied.

Bruce felt the mattress shift and heard the rustling of the blanket, followed by something being knocked off of the nightstand. He smiled faintly at Clint’s mumbled curse as he sat up against the headboard, running a hand over his face. There was a clicking noise, then another and another, and Bruce realized the power must have gone out. 

With another mumbled noise, Clint continued to shift around until he found his cellphone and clicked on the flashlight feature. The room was suddenly filled with a dim light. 

Clint quickly put in his hearing aids and then turned to look at Bruce in the faint light. Whatever he saw made his brow slightly furrow in worry. He set his phone down on the bedspread so the flashlight kept illuminating the room and pulled Bruce into a hug.

Bruce slumped against him and returned the embrace, feeling some of the last bits of the panic leave him. He felt _exhausted,_ but he knew there was no way he would be able to fall back asleep any time soon, if at all. He could feel Hulk was in the same boat; he was far too on edge to return to slumber.

“What time is it?” Bruce mumbled against his shoulder.

“Three in the morning,” Clint replied softly. There was a pause. “Overnight thunderstorms are the worst.”

Bruce huffed a humorless laugh, but he burrowed a little more firmly against Clint.

Clint tipped his head enough to press a kiss against his curls and continued to hold him. The rain continued to pound against the roof overhead and in the distance, there was a soft rumble of thunder, but the worst had passed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter includes descriptions of panic and anxiety. Heed that warning, please. Take care of yourself and stay safe.


	23. Board Game

There was a distant rumble of thunder.

Bruce took in a steady and deep breath, which immediately calmed Hulk down. He still growled lowly, like he was threatening the storm to produce another rumble of thunder, but he had calmed down substantially since the night. 

It had been raining steadily all day and much milder storms has passed overhead, but it seemed like it would be like this for the rest of the day. The power hadn’t come back on yet, but they had a generator connected to a few select things within the cabin. 

Bruce tried to focus back on the seventh book in the _Harry Potter_ series he was reading, but he had been on the same page since this current storm had started. He kept realizing he hadn’t absorbed anything he had read for the past fifteen minutes. He must have reread this paragraph six times now and it still felt new each time. He had hunkered down near a window for some light and to be prepared for any coming storms so he wouldn’t have a repeat of last night. He’d finished up book six that morning and was working his way through the final book in starts and stops.

He heard movement on the stairs and glanced up to find Natasha coming down to the ground level. She had disappeared upstairs to take care of some work after lunch as everyone kind of went different ways for the afternoon. Pepper was still working; her Stark Industries tech didn’t give her any trouble, even with the power outage. Natasha’s tech was very much the same. 

Thor had gone back to Europe after his hike with Natasha on Sunday to spend some time with Jane and said he’d be back later in the week. He was due to return to Asgard relatively soon, as responsibilities needed to be upheld. Bucky and Steve were spending a few more days with Sam in DC, but they’d be back before the weekend.

Natasha paused on the bottom stair and looked over at him, silently studying him for a long moment. Bruce looked back at her, but before he could offer a greeting, there was another rolling boom from outside and he instead took a breath. Natasha quirked her head just slightly at the sound of the thunder before she finally finished descending the staircase. “Where’s Clint?” she asked.

“Outside,” Bruce replied. When she blinked at him, he offered her an amused little smile. “He said something about getting some range practice done in bad weather. I think Tony’s out there with him.”

“Ah,” Natasha said with a knowing little nod. 

As Natasha walked off toward the den, Bruce tried to focus on his book again. Another rumble of thunder made sure he didn’t get far.

He was just beginning to debate on whether he should set aside the book when Natasha came back up from the den with a long thin box tucked up under her arm. She approached him and set the box down on the coffee table in front of the sofa. 

Bruce instinctively glanced at it and smiled. “I forgot about the board game stash down there,” he said, looking away from the _Scrabble_ box and back to her.

“Want to play a few rounds?” she asked even as she sat down on the floor on the other side of the coffee table and opened the box.

Bruce knew immediately what she was doing and he felt himself smile a little ruefully. “Trying to distract me?” he asked. Still, he set the book aside.

“Yes,” Natasha replied easily, and Bruce huffed a laugh at her honesty. She offered him a little smile back. “That, and I think you’ll be a good challenge. We haven’t played this one together.”

“We haven’t,” Bruce agreed, watching her unfold the board. “You used to play this one pretty often with Clint and Phil, right?”

Natasha smiled as she gave him his tile holder and the bag of letter tiles. “We did,” she said, watching Bruce pull a single tile out to determine who went first. “We don’t get to do it as often anymore since we’re not constantly landing in SHIELD medical anymore, but it’s still nice to reminisce.” Her smile turned a little bit more secretive as she leaned in a little. “Although playing this game with Clint while he was still high on pain killers was always entertaining.”

Bruce chuckled at that. “I can only imagine the kinds of words he would try playing in such a state.”

Natasha pulled a letter from the tile bag and it was determined she would get to play the first word. They each drew seven tiles and the game began.

_Scrabble_ had never been a game he had gone out of his way to play in his younger years. There had been a few game nights with his aunt, uncle, and cousin that had featured this game, but his mind had always been on other things. He’d played with Betty only a handful of times in all the time they had been a couple. This was the first time he was playing it in well over a decade.

“You remember the rules?” Natasha asked, reading his mind. She played her first word: _travel._

“I might need a few reminders on specifics, but I think I remember the basics,” Bruce answered. He played _jars_ off of her A tile and picked up three new tiles to add to his holder.

Natasha looked down at what he played and a challenging smirk touched her lips. “So it seems. Let’s do this, then.”

==

“It is absolutely a word,” Bruce shot back with a laugh at Natasha’s disbelieving look. He heard the kitchen door open and the sound of rain got briefly louder before the door closed again, followed by a pair of footsteps.

“You hold that thought, Dr. Banner,” Natasha said got up. She looked into the kitchen as she walked by the doorway. “Clint, tell your boyfriend he’s a cheater.”

“Uh oh,” came Clint’s reply.

“I’m not cheating,” Bruce called after her as she disappeared down the stairs to the den, likely to go grab a dictionary. “It’s a type of molecule.”

Clint and Tony appeared in the doorway, looking in on the scene in the living room. Clint had a towel around his shoulders and his hair was a damp mess. He was actively dripping rainwater onto the floor as he stood there, soaked to the bone. Tony looked completely fine; he must have been out there in his suit. 

“I’m looking it up,” Natasha’s voice carried up from the den.

“What did you play?” Tony asked as he walked into the living room. He sat on the couch next to Bruce and looked down at the board for all of a moment before a grin crossed his face. “ _Ooh,_ that’s a _great_ word,” he said proudly.

Clint stepped a little into the room and looked down at the board as well, eyes narrowing in on the played tiles. He quirked his head slightly to the side even as a little mischievous smirk started to curl his lips. “ _Is_ that a word?” he asked.

_“Yes!”_ Bruce and Tony exclaimed in unison. “It’s a molecule with both a positive and negative charge,” Bruce explained as Tony said “They’re also called inner salts, but zwitterion is totally a word!”

Clint laughed at their fiery reaction.

From downstairs, they heard Natasha say “ _Damn it,_ zwitterion is in the dictionary.”

Tony gave Bruce a high five, which he returned with a laugh. “Chemistry prevails!” Tony declared with triumph, which had both Clint and Bruce laughing.

“You nerd,” Clint said fondly with a laugh as he started to climb the stairs to hopefully go change into dry clothes. “The four of us should play. I want to see you two try to out-nerd each other.”

“Different fields, dear,” Bruce replied, but he was smiling.

Tony looked over at him, a challenge in his eyes. “What? You don’t think your physics background can hold a candle to my engineering expertise?”

“No, I know I can hold my own against you,” Bruce replied calmly just to see Tony’s determination fire up again.

Tony got up and went to the top of the stairs to the den. “Natasha! Forfeit so we can start a new game!”

Natasha came back up the stairs. “I have to try to beat him,” she said, shooting a glare at the board and then at Bruce, who smiled innocently back at her.

Tony groaned at that and moved to the stairs to the second level of the house. “Ugh, fine. I’m going to go bother Pepper. Come get me when you lose.”

He was already heading upstairs when Natasha shot him a glare, but Bruce laughed. 

Once it was just the two of them again, Natasha looked back at him and the competition in her eyes faded. She looked him over for a long moment before she smiled. “You look like you’re feeling better,” she said at length.

Bruce smiled back. “I am,” he answered truthfully. “Thank you for that.” She was always looking out for everyone else; it never failed to warm his heart to know she cared for him.

Natasha gave a little nod at his gratitude and looked back down at the board. She made a face and reached out to shift the Z tile to show it was worth double. “I’m not going to be able to catch up, am I?” she asked with a hint of distaste.

“There’s always a possibility,” Bruce answered kindly, but he laughed at the look she shot him.


	24. Dancing

The sound of static slowly morphed into a person’s voice, which then shifted back into static as Clint fiddled with the dial on the battery-powered radio. 

It was night and the power still hadn’t come back on yet. At least the rain had stopped in the morning. It had remained cloudy for a majority of the day, but as the sun had set, the clouds had finally started to break up a little.

With the rain gone and the back deck furniture mostly dried out, Clint and Bruce had migrated out here for some nighttime Rummy. Bruce had lit a few candles and set them around on the picnic table, casting a gentle glow on both the surface and on Clint’s face. 

They had been conversing quietly as they played, the radio playing some songs from the 80s softly in the background. They’d gotten to the top of the hour and the DJ announced the next hour would be some sort of talk show, so Clint had started flipping through the stations to find something else.

It was Clint’s turn, so Bruce watched the shadows dance across Clint’s face as he concentrated on the radio. He rested his chin upon his palm and his elbow up on the table, content to just stare at his guy in the candlelight. 

“What do you think the chances are of actually finding some music?” Clint asked after another minute of fiddling. “It’s not even that late. What’s with all of the late-night talk shows this thing is picking up?”

“Maybe they’re popular in these parts,” Bruce responded mildly. “And it’s almost midnight.”

“It is not,” Clint replied, glancing over at him briefly before he illuminated his phone screen. “Dang. Time flies.” He looked back at Bruce. “You good for a few more games?”

“Sure,” Bruce replied, still watching Clint.

They held each other’s gaze for a long moment before Clint huffed a small laugh and refocused on the radio, blushing slightly. Bruce smiled fondly at him, feeling that delightful warmth in his chest. 

A moment later, the static morphed into gentle piano riffs and an easy percussion beat. 

“Oh hey, here we go,” Clint said with a bright smile as he brought the station fully out of static. It was just in time for what sounded like an electric piano and bass duet.

Bruce laughed. “You found a smooth jazz station,” he said.

Clint grinned over at him, so bright and full that Bruce felt his belly flip in his core. “I’ll take it over a talk show,” he replied.

The tune ended and a more upbeat jazz song came on, but it was still mellow. This one included bongos and an electric guitar. Clint had been reaching for the hand of cards to continue the game, but he paused at the new music. 

Bruce saw the moment an idea popped into his head. “Uh oh,” he said as Clint stood up and gently took his hand. He still got to his feet at Clint’s gentle insistence. 

“Come on, it’s got a nice beat,” Clint cajoled him with a smile. He tugged Bruce close and rested one of his hands on Bruce’s shoulder, smiling when Bruce instinctively let his hand go to Clint’s hip. Their other hands remained together and they began to sway to the music as a mellow trumpet medley started to play over the chords provided by the piano.

They were pressed close together, moving with the beat and with each other easily. Bruce found himself staring at Clint’s face as they danced, enamored by the half-lidded stare he was getting in return. In unison, their foreheads came together and they continued to dance slowly in the near darkness of the deck. 

The faint glow of the candles on the table gave Bruce just enough light to keep looking into Clint’s eyes and he found himself smiling involuntarily. There were crickets and cicadas offering the occasional noise to accent the music, as well as the gentle rustling of trees and grass all around them. Off in the distance, there was an owl’s call. 

The song changed over to an even slower song, just a piano, a bass, and a percussionist. It was a slow song and they immediately slowed down. Their hands separated so they could wrap their arms around each other and continue to sway gently to the music. It was really more of an embrace that gently rocked back and forth than a dance, but it was lovely and theirs and Bruce wanted it to go on forever.

Their lips came together as they gently swayed, the soft music and the sounds of nature washing over them. Bruce’s eyes had slipped shut and he focused on the feeling of Clint all around him, committing all of this to memory. 

They continued to kiss and sway as one song transitioned to another and the next and the next. Eventually their lips broke apart and Clint pressed closer as he tucked his face against the side of Bruce’s neck, alternating between pressing feather-light kisses there or just breathing him in. 

Bruce held Clint close, keeping them moving slowly to the music. He felt so at peace. He loved dancing with Clint. Clint was usually a ball of energy on the dancefloor to the more ridiculous upbeat songs, but this he absolutely adored. He loved the solid press of being together, swaying slowly in each other’s arms. He kept one hand pressed to the small of Clint’s back, but the other slowly rubbed along his back and Clint offered a soft, low hum in response.

Heavens above, he loved this man.

He pressed a kiss to the side of Clint’s jaw and drew a breath. He was slow to open his eyes, but he wanted to say this while looking Clint in the eye. His eyes blinked open.

He immediately saw light spilling out across the deck. “Oh,” he said thoughtlessly.

“Hmm?” Clint asked against his throat, starting to draw back.

The moment had passed.

They didn’t leave each other’s arms, but they looked toward the cabin and found the kitchen lights on. 

“Oh,” Clint said. “Power’s back on.”

“Looks like it,” Bruce agreed softly, only a little disappointed that he hadn’t had a chance to say what he wanted to say in the moment. Bruce looked back at Clint and saw he definitely looked sleepier than he did before they had started dancing. He felt himself smile and he kissed Clint again. “Ready for bed?” he asked as their lips parted.

“Mmm, one more song,” Clint replied with a smile and another kiss as he pressed in close to Bruce again.

Bruce laughed softly and pulled Clint in, letting Clint tuck his face back against his throat. “One more song,” he said in a low voice as they began to sway again. He’d have other chances. Right now, he was happy to just dance with the man he loved.


	25. Fireflies

It was starting to get dark. Clint was watching the madness unfold before him, a bottle of beer in his hand, when he heard the door open behind him. When he heard the person behind him pause, he glanced back toward the cabin to see who it was. “Welcome back,” he said.

Bucky was standing in the doorway, his eyes focusing on what was happening in the backyard. His expression was hardened and there was no denying the look of apprehension on his face, but at least it was tinged with confusion instead of hostility. “Are they _wrestling?”_ he asked in quiet disbelief.

Clint turned around just in time to see Hulk toss Thor aside like an unwanted toy. Thor gave a great booming laugh as he went airborne before he disappeared from view around the side of the cabin. There was a great splash. 

Hulk roared triumphantly and stalked off toward the pond.

“Yep,” Clint replied, taking a sip of his beer. 

Once Hulk was out of view, Clint looked back at Bucky. “How was your trip?”

After a moment of hesitation, Bucky stepped out of the doorway, letting the door close behind him as he approached the railing around the deck. “It was fine,” he replied. “Lots of kids around the VA for the Father’s Day event, which was weird. But…” He drew a breath and seemed a little steadier on the exhale. “It was good. I’m glad we went.”

Clint felt himself smile. “That’s great, man,” he said, giving Bucky a slight toast with his beer. “I’m glad you guys got to go.”

Bucky looked back at him for a moment before he tipped his head in quiet thanks. 

The two of them didn’t talk about therapy or trauma all that often, but it didn’t mean Clint wasn’t proud of Bucky for how far he had come. Getting brainwashed to do someone else’s bidding seriously messed with a person. It had taken Clint a while to come to terms with what happened, and he was only under the thrall of someone else for a fraction of the time Bucky had been trapped with HYDRA. 

It was incredible to see how far he had come since Clint had first met him, but Clint knew he still had a ways to go.

So it wasn’t a surprise to see Bucky tense back up at the sound of heavy approaching footsteps. They both looked over to see Hulk walking back into view. 

“Hulk win,” Hulk said with a smug grin toward Clint before he looked over at Bucky. His smile fell away immediately and he stared.

Bucky stared back.

It was then that Clint remembered the two of them had not really interacted with one another before.

Sure, they went on missions together, but Bucky was a sniper and Hulk was always up close to the action. But they hadn’t really interacted with one another without a great span of distance between them.

Clint looked between the two of them, ready to step in if needed. He saw Hulk look back toward him for a moment before his eyes shifted to that healthy mix of green and brown to show Bruce was awake and watching on the inside. 

Hulk looked back at Bucky. “Welcome back,” he said at last, and Clint knew with certainty that Bruce had asked him to say that.

Bucky stared for a moment longer, clearly unsure how to proceed here. Finally, he relaxed a little. “Thanks,” he said at length. 

There was another pause. “Trip good?” Hulk asked a little awkwardly.

“Yeah, it was good,” Bucky answered.

Silence fell between them. 

It didn’t last long, for Thor came sprinting from around the side of the cabin, absolutely soaked, and tackled Hulk to the ground.

Hulk went sprawling and gave a noise like a snarl, but Clint recognized it as a laugh. 

“We are not yet through!” Thor declared as they landed. He was quickly swatted away and went rolling toward the shed.

Hulk quickly jumped to his feet, a savage grin on his face, and stalked after Thor. “Want to lose again to Hulk?” he goaded.

“Your over-confidence shall be your downfall!” Thor replied with a bright grin as he also got to his feet. “Come on, then!” 

Clint took another sedate sip of his beer as the next bout of wrestling began. He looked over at Bucky to find him watching the fray, still incredibly tense. He approached so they were standing side by side, watching the play fight in the back yard. “You know they’re just playing around, right?” he asked the other man softly.

Bucky didn’t take his eyes away from Thor and Hulk, but he nodded. “Logically, yes,” he answered. He grimaced when Hulk swatted Thor away again and lunged after him.

“You two haven’t been properly introduced yet, have you?” Clint asked. “We can totally do that today, if you’re comfortable with it.”

That did make Bucky tear his eyes away from the fray. He looked over at Clint. “Maybe once they’re done,” he suggested, like he thought Clint was mad.

Clint grinned at him to put him at ease. He wasn’t sure how successful he was. “Yeah, we’ll let them duke it out a little longer,” he agreed as he looked back at Hulk. “I think they both need it.”

Bucky was silence, but Clint heard the question there. 

“They do this every now and then,” Clint explained. “Sometimes they need to burn off some excess energy, and it’s hard for either of them to do it with the rest of the team, you know? They’re actually good competition for each other—”

_“Cupid!”_ Hulk shouted as he abruptly came to a stop, sounding scandalized and looking over at the deck. “ _Hulk_ strongest!”

Clint laughed when Thor tackled him to the ground again, taking the momentary distraction and using it to his advantage. “Prove it!” he called back. “Throw him in the pond again!”

“Clint, do not encourage him!” Thor shouted at him as he struggled to pin Hulk down. It was hard to take him seriously, as he was laughing.

Hulk grinned viciously again and pulled Thor from his back, throwing him aside.

As the wrestling match heated up, Clint looked back at Bucky. He smiled when he saw the unabashed fascination on his face as he watched Thor and Hulk go at it. 

“They really are playing,” Bucky said softly. 

“Yeah,” Clint said, smiling as he watched. “But yeah, they’ll spar or wrestle or whatever you want to call this every now and then, but it’s been a while since they’ve done this. I think Thor was itching for the chance and Hulk has had a few rough days lately. It’s good to burn off the extra energy.”

Bucky was quiet for a long moment, simply staring into the backyard. Clint also focused on the fight instead of the man beside him.

It went on for another few minutes, but it was clear they were having more fun than getting the need to spar out of their system. 

This time when Thor was thrown through the air and there was a resounding splash, Bucky chuckled a little. 

Hulk put his hands on his hips and gave a hearty and victorious laugh. He then looked over at Clint. “ _Hulk_ is strongest,” he said pointedly.

Clint laughed and held up his free hand in submission. “You proved it, Jade Jaws. You’re the strongest.”

Hulk grinned at that before he looked over at Bucky for a second. He then looked off toward where the pond is. “Help Thor out,” he said as he walked off.

“Thanks, Big Guy,” Clint called after him as he disappeared. He set his empty bottle of beer down on the picnic tables and stretched a little, looking up at the stars that were starting to come out. There were a few fireflies out, blinking gently in the growing darkness. He smiled a little. “Man, I’m gonna miss having this view,” he said wistfully.

Next to him, Bucky also glanced upward. “Not ever really going to get this in New York,” he agreed softly. 

Together, they stared up at the sky, at the stars blinking way up high and the blinking of fireflies closer to home. It was getting darker; it was that twilight period of the day. More and more stars started appearing in the darkening sky and more and more fireflies started coming alive, dancing in the air.

The sound of approaching footsteps brought their eyes back to the backyard in time to see Thor stepping up onto the deck. He was soaked again. He was actively wringing out his hair as he approached. “Friends,” he greeted them with a delighted smile. “It appears I have been bested this night.”

“So it seems,” Bucky agreed with a small smirk.

“Where’s Hulk?” Clint asked, noting that the goliath hadn’t followed Thor back over into view.

“He is by the pond,” Thor replied, gesturing off yonder with a flimsy wrist movement. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must change.”

As Thor wandered inside, Clint looked over at Bucky and offered him a smile. “Want that introduction?” he asked. “No pressure if you’d rather wait until a team practice or something. It took Tasha a few of them to really start getting comfortable with Big Green.”

It looked like Bucky was really considering his offer. Clint could tell that Bucky didn’t like admitting that Hulk made him uncomfortable, but then again, Natasha hadn’t liked admitting it either. Something about admitting to a weakness. “Sure,” Bucky finally replied.

Together, they stepped off of the deck and rounded the corner of the cabin, headed toward the little pond on the side of the house. In the growing gloom, Clint spotted Hulk over by the pond, squatting down next to the shore. 

“Everything okay?” Clint asked as they approached. 

Hulk was watching his hand and when Clint looked, he saw a brief flicker of light on his finger before it disappeared. Clint smiled. “Aw, did you catch a firefly?” he asked, kneeling down next to the goliath.

“In water,” Hulk rumbled. “Hulk save.” 

Clint felt his smile soften and he put a hand on Hulk’s knee. “Great job,” he said. 

Hulk smiled a little and glanced over his shoulder at where Bucky was, who had paused a few paces back. Hulk twisted around and held out his hand. “Firebug. See?”

Bucky stayed back for a moment longer, simply observing, before he glanced down at the outstretched arm easily closing the gap between them. The firefly on Hulk’s finger blinked on and off again before it took to the air, hovering away. Bucky carefully caught a different one and coaxed it onto Hulk’s hand. 

Hulk brought his hand back to his face to watch the bug crawl around before it also started to fly away. The goliath watched it with a note of wonder on his face. “Pretty,” he commented softly.

“Yeah,” Bucky replied just as quietly. When Clint glanced over, he found a pretty similar smile on Bucky’s face. Clint smiled to himself.

Hulk finally sat down criss-cross and watched as Bucky caught another before he tried carefully catching a firefly himself. “Gentle,” he said to himself, likely repeating what Bruce was telling him internally. He cupped his hands around a firefly that was lazily floating by and brought his hands up to his face.

Clint watched the glow flicker gently on his face and felt his chest grow warm. 

Hulk then reached out toward Bucky again and let the bug crawl from his finger onto Bucky’s hand.

Some emotion flickered across Bucky’s expression at the gesture and he mimicked Hulk, bringing his hand closer to his face to take a closer look. “Thank you,” he said softly. He then looked straight at Hulk, who was still watching him. 

The two stared at one another for a long moment before Hulk grinned at him. “Work with Cupid,” he said, lightly nudging Clint’s side with an elbow. “Keep Cupid from falling out of jet.”

“Hey,” Clint said with a grin. He wasn’t surprised when Hulk picked him up and settled him in his lap. He didn’t bother trying to resist. 

Hulk wrapped one of his arms around Clint to keep him settled there like an oversized teddy bear. He was still looking at Bucky. “Thank _you,”_ he said with sincerity. 

Bucky huffed a little laugh at that, sounding somewhat overwhelmed, but he was smiling. He looked down at Clint for only a moment before he met Hulk’s eyes again. “You’re welcome. Thanks for watching Steve’s back on the battlefield.”

“Hulk protect team,” Hulk replied easily, smiling back. “Bucky protect team. Friends.” He held out his hand, palm up.

Clint watched Bucky smile again, looking more at ease. “Yeah. Friends,” Bucky agreed. He let one of his hands settle against Hulk’s palm. He laughed a little again before he looked down at Clint. “Thank you,” he said.

Clint grinned and settled back against Hulk’s chest, letting his arms rest upon the massive forearm pinning him there. “Don’t thank me,” he said. “You two just needed a proper chance to meet outside of battle and team practice.” A firefly floated by and he carefully caught it in cupped hands. He looked into his cupped hands at the firefly, glowing softly against his palms. “That’s all you guys needed.”

Hulk ducked his head and tucked his chin atop Clint’s shoulder to also peek into Clint’s cupped hands. Clint leaned his head against Hulk’s and they watched the firefly fly off.


	26. Fireworks

The rocking of the jet brought Bruce up from out of his doze. He kept his eyes closed and drew in a long breath, tucking his face a little more into the crook of Clint’s neck when just breathing sent an ache through him. It had been a rough mission, then.

Clint must have felt him move, for his hold on him grew a little steadier. “Hey,” he said softly.

With effort, Bruce pulled his face away from the sanctuary of Clint’s throat and opened his eyes. “Is—” He had to break off to cough a little; his voice was rough. He cleared his scratchy throat and tried again. “Is everyone okay?” he asked hoarsely, looking at Clint. 

There were already a few bandages that Bruce could see on Clint’s person. He had one up on his forehead and a few along his forearms. There were bruises already beginning to blossom across his arms, too, and Bruce made a sad noise when he spotted them.

“Everyone’s okay, Bruce,” Clint replied, giving him a reassuring smile. “You patched everyone up before passing out.” At Bruce’s blank look, his smile softened with fondness. “You don’t remember, do you? I think you were sort of in a fugue state.”

Bruce didn’t remember. He hardly remembered the fight. He felt Hulk inside, sleeping the deep sleep of exhaustion he hadn’t felt since the Battle of Manhattan. There were flashes of colors and feelings of rage, but beyond that, everything was a haze of green or just not there. 

As Clint wrapped an arm around Bruce’s shoulders to help keep him upright, Bruce looked around the rest of the inside of the jet at the others. Everyone was banged up and looked exhausted. It had been an early morning call to action and as Bruce looked ahead toward the cockpit of the jet, the sky outside was dark. That either meant it was still early in the morning or it was now nighttime; he was betting it was the latter. 

That glance outside also showed that they were not in the wooded launch point where they had been keeping the quinjet during their stay in the mountains. Tony was sitting in the pilot’s seat with Natasha sitting copilot. 

“Where are we?” Bruce asked quietly, more of a croak than a question.

Clint reached over and grabbed bottle of water. He opened it and offered it to him with a sympathetic look on his face. “We’re somewhere in Tennessee, I think,” he answered. He kept his fingers on the bottom of the bottle to steady it a little, since Bruce’s hands were shaking. Once Bruce had finished drinking, he swiftly tightened the lid back onto the bottle and glanced toward the cockpit. “Tennessee, right?”

“Arkansas, actually,” Tony replied, flipping a few switches. He hit a button and the ramp at the back of the jet began to lower. He turned in the seat and Bruce could see he looked tired, but he was relatively unharmed. “Thought it might be nice to close out the night with a show, you know? We’ve already flown over a few.”

At Bruce’s confused look, Clint smiled. “There’s a fireworks show about to start, apparently. We’ve flown over a handful and I guess JARVIS let Tony know about this one.”

Across the way, Steve carefully got up, putting a hand to his side as he did. Bucky was quick to help him. They both looked roughened up, Steve more-so than Bucky, but that was to be expected in where they placed themselves in a fight. For whatever reason, parts of Steve’s suit looked burnt. “I gotta say,” Steve began with a tired little smile, “it was neat watching them from overhead. Definitely a first for me.”

Bruce watched the two of them head toward the back of the jet. “We stopped to watch a fireworks display?” he asked the group at large, just for clarification.

Natasha took off her communicator headset and set them on the dash as she stood up. She didn’t look too bad off; just a few scrapes and bruises, but all in one piece. “Nice way to round out the week, right?” she asked, looking completely serious aside from the light in her eyes.

As she passed by, Tony joined her and also stepped toward the back of the jet. “Perfectly wholesome Friday night fun,” Tony agreed as he walked by.

Thor was slow to get up. His armor was blackened with soot and char and he looked tired, but he did look intrigued by the promise of fireworks outside. He followed after the others.

It left Clint and Bruce in the hull of the jet, seated together on one of the benches that lined the aircraft. Clint offered him the water again and didn’t seem to be in a rush to join the others. “How are you feeling?” he asked softly. “You haven’t been this rough after a mission in a while.”

“I’m just tired and sore,” Bruce replied, taking sips to soothe his sore throat. “What happened?”

“Just a guy and his robot army,” Clint said with a little smile.

Despite himself and the ache it sent through him, Bruce huffed a laugh. “Another guy and his robots?” he asked in tired disbelief.

“Another guy and his robots, wouldn’t you believe it,” Clint confirmed, trying and failing to sound surprised. Bruce chuckled again and Clint continued to hold him close, fiddling with his curls absently. “These robots were prone to exploding, though.”

Well, that explained why Steve and Thor looked a little burnt and why Hulk was exhausted. It took a lot to get Hulk tired.

“So if you’d rather just try to go back to sleep, I wouldn’t blame you,” Clint went on. “You guys kind of took a beating, since no one else could really get close.”

Bruce drew a breath in and glanced over toward where the back of the jet was opened up. It was dark out there, but it was quiet. He had a memory of watching the light from a firefly glow gently upon Clint’s face last night and he wanted to see other colors splashed across his features. “Yeah, let’s go watch,” Bruce said as he struggled to get up. 

Clint immediately helped him sit up. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Bruce replied, trying to stand up again. This time, with Clint’s help, he was able to make it to his feet. He realized there was a blanket over his shoulders as Clint quickly straightened it so it wouldn’t fall away.

“Okay,” Clint said gently. “We’ll sit on the ramp, so it’s not too far of a walk.”

Bruce didn’t respond, focusing on getting his legs to work properly. It really had been a while since he was this rough post-transformation. After Bruce stumbled a second time, Clint pulled the blanket aside so he could gently pull one of Bruce’s arms over his shoulders. 

Together, in stops and starts, they made it to the back of the jet. Bruce could hear the others conversing outside as they carefully stepped down the ramp. They were sitting in the grass off to the side of the jet.

The jet had landed in a field of sorts and off in the distance there were lights. If Bruce had to guess, it looked like some sort of sports arena. He vaguely recalled advertisements about the fireworks shows happening at the baseball field they had gone to the previous weekend.

Clint led them down part of the ramp and then helped Bruce sit down. Bruce smiled sleepily as Clint helped him get the blanket situated back on his shoulders. As Clint sat down next to him, Bruce offered him part of the blanket.

Clint grinned at him and cozied up to Bruce’s side under the blanket. Bruce leaned against Clint, resting his head on his shoulder and trying not to doze back off.

He heard Tony speak up from over the side of the ramp. “JARVIS’s countdown says the show starts in five…four…three…two…”

Bruce pulled in a deep breath, opened his eyes back up, and lifted his head off of Clint’s shoulder, readying himself for—

There was a sound like a whistle, followed by a thundering BOOM that rattled through Bruce’s chest. Hulk woke up for a startled moment and Bruce felt him look out through his eyes as the sky was lit up with a flash of white light that turned red, then blue, and then golden as the sparks embers started to rapidly cool and float back to the Earth’s surface.

Bruce smiled at the awe that filled him from his alter ego. Hulk immediately settled, watching the show with rapt, if sleepy, attention.

It was an impressive display. There were multi-color ones, ones that exploded into massive circles of light and smaller ones with unique designs. There were the types that exploded into sounds like static and others that exploded so loud it felt like a kick to the chest. Glittering sparks rained down upon the horizon. 

Bruce tore his eyes away to look over at Clint. 

Clint was staring at the show with an easy smile on his face. At times, his features were highlighted in blues, then reds and greens and golds and purples, all flickering rapidly from one color to the other, fading back into shadow when there was a brief lull. It was amazing to watch the different colors meld into the next, all splayed across Clint’s gorgeous features.

It was breathtaking to watch. 

After a minute or two, Clint glanced over at him and caught him staring. He looked surprised for all of a moment before his smile softened into a loving little thing, just for him. If Bruce didn’t know any better, he could have sworn a mild blush had spread across his cheeks. Clint lightly jostled Bruce from where he was pressed up against his side and then kissed his cheek. 

“Sap,” he whispered in his ear before he drew away.

Bruce tried to repress the shiver it caused and failed.

Clint grinned in triumph before he returned his eyes to the fireworks display. Bruce settled his head back on Clint’s shoulder and smiled when Clint tipped his head against Bruce’s. Together, they stayed just like that for the rest of the show, watching the flashing of lights and colors dance across the night sky.


	27. Summer Nights

“Hey, Big Guy,” Tony said as he sat down in the plastic chair next to Bruce. “How are you feeling? I haven’t seen you all day.”

After the fireworks display last night, they had packed back into the jet to make their way back to the cabin. It was a quick walk through the woods to reach the cabin from where Tony had landed the jet, but once they were back, everyone pretty much passed out for the night and, in some of their cases, most of the morning. The mission yesterday had been brutal and they were all recovering from injuries or just sheer fatigue.

Any injuries Hulk and Bruce had sustained had swiftly healed, but that did nothing for the bone-deep exhaustion that was still weighing him down. He had woken up in the afternoon for a little bit to stretch out his stiff muscles, shower, and attend the debriefing with Phil, but it wasn’t long before he had fallen back asleep. Rest really was the best medicine for him when it came to recovering from both a rough transformation and a fierce battle. 

Now it was twilight and they were getting ready to congregate around the fire pit to enjoy a late dinner together. Clint was over by the grill with Thor, lending a hand. The others were still inside. Bruce had taken the task of getting the fire started and then had relaxed into one of the chairs. He was still sore and tired, but he was awake for the moment and he wanted to sit out here with his family to enjoy his Saturday night with everyone else.

He couldn’t hear what the conversation was on the back deck, but he smiled when he heard Thor and Clint laugh.

Bruce looked away from the fire to where Tony was sitting and gave him a little smile. “I’m okay,” he answered. “Just a bit sore.”

“I bet,” Tony replied. “You two were on fire yesterday.”

“I hope you don’t mean that literally,” Bruce said with a rueful grin.

Tony waved off his comment easily. “Maybe for a little bit, what with the explosions and all.” As Bruce huffed a laugh, Tony glanced into the fire and they took a moment to just watch the flames lick along the wood within the grate. 

It was a peaceful night. There were fireflies out in abundance, flickering on and off as they floated lazily by on the nighttime breezes. There were the sounds of crickets around them, their chirping mingling with the crackling of the fire. Behind them, Thor and Clint were having a quiet conversation, too far away to make out any of the words. It was a little chillier tonight; Bruce was wearing one of Clint’s sweaters.

“I think I’m going to miss this,” Tony said after a while, like a confession. When Bruce glanced over, he found Tony looking upward, watching the embers travel up with the smoke toward the heavens. Beyond where the embers died out, more and more stars were beginning to appear in the night sky.

Bruce let the back of his head rest upon the back of the chair as he looked upward, a smile on his face. “Yeah,” he agreed softly. “This has been really great.”

“Maybe we can come back out here again soon,” Tony mused. “It’s been nice to have everyone together again for fun instead of work. I think I had forgotten how much I enjoy this.”

Bruce smiled again. He remembered how much Tony had wanted the holiday season in December to be special, since it was their first one spent together. He knew Tony liked it when they were all together. There was a reason he had invited them to all stay in the tower after the Battle of Manhattan, and with each Avenger that had decided to take him up on the offer, Tony had seemed that much more content. 

“I think we all did,” Bruce said after another moment. He tipped his head back downward to look back into the fire. “We’re all so busy all of the time, I think we forgot that breaks are necessary to properly recharge. I mean, it’s important to just take breaks from time to time to avoid burnout, but it’s also important from a health standpoint. I think we had all been kind of neglecting that.”

Tony hummed his agreement. “All it took was you and Big Green losing it in the lab,” he said seriously.

An involuntary bark of laughter escaped from Bruce. “You’re blaming us?” he asked, looking at Tony in mild disbelief.

“Yes, I’m blaming you,” Tony replied with a grin. “I’m not the one who transformed because I couldn’t handle a little sleep deprivation.”

“And whose fault was it that we got to that point in the first place?” Bruce asked sweetly.

Tony opened his mouth to argue, but he paused as he thought about it. Bruce smiled at his silence and went back to looking at the fire. “Okay, fair point,” Tony allowed. 

“Let’s just make sure it doesn’t come to that next time,” Bruce said.

“I can live with that,” Tony replied easily.

They fell into a brief hush before Tony got up. “I’m going to go grab the s’more supplies,” he announced as he circled the chair to head back to the cabin.

“We haven’t even had dinner,” Bruce pointed out, not bothering to turn around.

“I’m on vacation,” Tony shot back as he kept walking.

Bruce laughed. He could hardly argue with that. He tipped his head back against the chair again to look back up at the sky. The last rays of the sun were vanishing into the darkness of night. This close to the fire, he couldn’t see the vastness of the universe overhead, but it was still exciting to just see more stars than he normally did in New York. He really had missed this.

“Hey.”

Clint’s face popped into his line of sight, upside down as he approached the back of the chair. 

Bruce immediately smiled. “Hey,” he replied. His eyes slipped shut as Clint leaned forward to press a quick kiss against his forehead.

Without pulling back, Clint went on. “We’ve got meat kabobs, vegetarian kabobs, burgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs. Any preference?” His lips brushed against his forehead as he spoke.

“The veggie kabobs sound nice,” Bruce replied softly.

There was another kiss to his forehead before Clint leaned back a little. “You got it,” he replied. “Dinner should be ready soon. I’ll bring you yours.”

“Thank you,” Bruce said, opening his eyes. He found Clint staring down at him, a gentle and loving look on his face. The campfire lit up portions of his face and cast others into shadow, highlighting the crinkles around his eyes as he smiled, and Bruce found his stomach giving a happy little flip at the sight. 

They took another moment to just stare at one another, upside down from each other’s point of view. Clint smiled again and kissed Bruce’s forehead again. And then he turned and returned back to the deck.

Bruce was left staring up at the stars, feeling his heart beating a little faster in his chest and that happy feeling in his core sending tingling pulses of electricity through his body. He swallowed and lightly ran his thumb along the edge of one of the sweater’s sleeves, a sweater that Clint had left out for him after his nap, since it was supposed to be a little chiller tonight. The amount of care and love this man showed him never failed to leave him speechless and breathless with happiness. 

He had to tell him. He _had_ to. 

“You alright, there?”

Bruce blinked from his thoughts and tipped his head to the side to find Tony. The engineer was depositing the different s’more supplies onto a little plastic table and was in the process of opening the bag of marshmallows.

“I love him,” Bruce said softly.

“Well, yeah,” Tony replied distractedly, pulling the rubber band off of the plastic to open it.

“I love him,” Bruce said again, turning his head to look back up at the stars. 

The rustling of plastic paused and he could feel Tony look over at him. “Is this…new?” Tony asked, sounding confused. 

Bruce swallowed again and couldn’t bring himself to look back over. “No,” he answered. “It… It’s just something I realized recently.”

“Ah,” Tony said, and Bruce could perfectly imagine the single little nod he probably gave to accompany that. “And you haven’t shared that with him yet, I’m guessing.”

“I’m going to,” Bruce said. “I have to. I want to.”

“Then what’s stopping you?” Tony asked. When Bruce finally glanced back over at his friend, he found Tony sticking a marshmallow on the end of one of the metal rods. He must have felt Bruce’s eyes on him, for he looked over and their eyes locked. “I mean, it’s kind of obvious how you two feel about each other. I don’t think you need to be worried about it being a one-sided thing.”

“I’m not,” Bruce replied, unable to look away. “I know he feels the same.”

“Then what’s stopping you?” Tony asked again.

Bruce blinked and finally glanced down. “I’m waiting for the right time,” he said.

“A word of advice?” Tony waited until Bruce looked back at him. “Don’t wait until you’re going through a wormhole with a nuclear warhead.”

Bruce huffed a little laugh at that and tipped his head back against his chair. “I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.” He looked back up at the stars for a moment then closed his eyes.

“Just saying,” Tony replied. “Here.”

Bruce looked over in time to see Tony offer him a metal rod with a marshmallow on the end. He smiled and took it. He looked into the fire and twisted the metal between his fingers a little, thinking. “Thank you,” Bruce said again, softer.

He smiled when Tony shifted his metal rod so their marshmallows touched briefly, like a toast. “Of course,” he said. He then used his metal rod to direct both of their marshmallows toward the fire.

Bruce laughed and then lowered his directly into the flames. It quickly ignited.

“Ugh,” Tony said with a note of disgust. “You really _do_ love him.”

Bruce only smiled to himself.

It was only a few minutes later that Clint and Thor declared dinner to be ready. Bruce could hear the back door to the house being opened and shut multiple times as the rest of their group came out to join them. 

As Bruce was sliding the charred marshmallow between a graham cracker and block of chocolate, he heard approaching footsteps. 

“S’mores before dinner, babe?” Clint asked with a grin as he circled around the chair, carrying two plates. He sat down on Bruce’s other side. “That’s—”

Bruce offered the s’more to Clint with a little smile. The look of delight that flashed upon Clint’s face brought that warm tingly feeling to him again and they swapped one of the plates for the s’more. 

“Are you two serious?” Steve asked as he rounded the fire. He was looking between Tony and Clint, who had just bit into their s’more. “You haven’t even had dinner yet.”

“Vacation,” Clint and Tony replied in unison with their mouths full, which prompted a laugh from Bruce.

Clint suddenly stopped chewing and he looked over at Bruce. Bruce looked back, smiling in amusement at the flecks of marshmallow, chocolate, and cracker on his lips. Clint then very quickly finished chewing before he grinned at Bruce. “You remembered!” he said with such delight.

“Of course I did,” Bruce replied. “How could I forget how you like your s’mores?”

Clint immediately leaned over and planted a sticky kiss against his cheek. Bruce laughed and shooed him away.

As he was attempting to wipe the gooey s’more residue from his cheek, he caught Tony looking at him. Once their eyes met, Tony just shook his head in playful disgust.

Bruce grinned back at him, because yep, he really did love Clint.


	28. Sunset

Today was the day.

Bruce decided it as he and Clint were fixing breakfast for the group. They had talked last night as they were lying in bed together and decided that they would make breakfast for everyone in the morning, since it would be their last one here as a full group. Pepper had meetings in DC she had to get to and so would be leaving after breakfast to make the drive out east. Thor was off to spend the day with Jane before he had to get back to Asgard. 

So, in the quiet of night and in the hush of the bedroom, Clint had asked if he wanted to help him make a big breakfast as a celebratory send-off. Bruce hadn’t needed to be convinced; he loved cooking with him.

And now, as they moved by each other with quiet efficiency, they traded casual touches and soft laughter. Once Bruce was finished with cutting up different fruits, he molded himself to Clint’s back and wrapped his arms around his waist, content to just hold his guy as Clint made scrambled eggs. Clint had easily let one of his arms rest along Bruce’s, simple as anything, and it hit Bruce just how easy everything with Clint was. 

Today had to be the day. Clint deserved to know.

Breakfast was a loud affair with the eight of them, but it was wonderful. Bruce loved how lively their group was, sharing quips and laughter so effortlessly. Clint had stayed by his side, pressing his leg against Bruce’s under the picnic table and grinning when Bruce tangled their ankles together. 

As the meal progressed, Bruce started making plans in his head. He already had some ideas, but he wanted this to feel right. There had already been so many opportunities to say those three words over the past few weeks, and while he almost regretted not saying them then in the moment, he knew he hadn’t been fully ready. 

But today was the day.

Bruce watched Clint laugh at a joke Bruce had missed in his musings and felt himself smile. Today was the day.

==

“Alright, hon, is that everything?” Tony asked, shutting the trunk to the rental car. 

“Should be,” Pepper replied as she tucked her laptop bag into the passenger seat. She welcomed Tony into her arms as he came around the side of the vehicle and they shared a long embrace. “I expect you to keep sleeping while I’m away, got it?” she said.

“Pep—” Tony began with a put-upon sigh.

“Ah,” Pepper cut him off, pulling back and giving him a look. “No buts. Bruce,” she said, turning to look at where Bruce was hovering near the front steps to the cabin, “make sure he sleeps.”

“Yes ma’am,” Bruce answered.

Tony turned a look of betrayal over at him. “Bruce, you should be on my side.”

“There are no sides to choose when it comes to health,” Bruce replied with an apologetic smile.

Pepper gave him an approving grin before she looked back at Tony. She pressed a kiss to his lips. “You’ve been doing so well,” she praised him quietly. “Just keep the pattern going. Okay?”

Tony kissed her again. “I’ll do my best, Ms. Potts,” he answered.

“That’s all I ask, Mr. Stark,” Pepper replied, rewarding him with another kiss. “I’ll see you on the 4th.”

“Drive safe,” Tony replied, giving her another long hug. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Pepper said with practiced ease. She stepped out of the embrace and started walked to the driver’s side door. “See you soon.”

Tony stepped back until he was standing next to Bruce, hands in his pockets as the rental car pulled away. He heaved a little sigh as the vehicle disappeared around the line of trees.

Bruce stood next to him, quiet.

After another moment, Tony turned to look over at Bruce. “So, what do you have planned for the rest of the day?” he asked.

“I’m hoping to take Clint somewhere,” Bruce replied, trying to keep his smile of excitement from showing.

“Oh yeah?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow as a knowing smile slowly curled his lips.

Bruce huffed a little laugh as he ducked his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Yeah,” he answered, looking back at him. “How about you?”

Tony’s smile disappeared, but there was light in his eyes. “I’ve got unfinished business with the Black Widow and a _Scrabble_ board,” he replied. He clapped Bruce on the shoulder. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Bruce said, watching as Tony walked up the steps and back into the cabin. He took a moment to look back down the driveway where Pepper had disappeared and he drew a slow breath in. His eyes moved across the front yard, following a cardinal as it flew to a nearby tree. He watched the bird for a moment longer before he turned off toward the side of the cabin. 

Sure enough, when he looked toward the little pond, he found Clint sitting on the dock with Natasha. Their heads were tilted in toward each other as they spoke lowly. They looked unusually serious.

Or they did, until Natasha glanced his way and spotted him. She lightly nudged Clint’s knee and he also glanced over. There was a light blush across his cheeks, but Bruce was immediately distracted from that by the blinding smile Clint sent his way. Bruce felt that tingly sensation all over and he instantly found himself smiling back.

As Bruce approached the pond, Natasha gave Clint’s knee a light pat and stood up. “Pepper’s gone?” she asked.

“Yeah, she just left,” Bruce replied. “I think Tony’s looking for you.”

“Is that so?” she replied, quirking an eyebrow at him.

“Something about settling a score?” Bruce explained with a mild shrug.

Natasha’s expression went carefully neutral, but Bruce caught the challenge in her eyes. “Is _that_ so?” she asked, sounding much more amused as an almost predatory smile touched her lips. “Well, I mustn’t keep him waiting, then.”

She ruffled Clint’s hair—Clint immediately shooed her off with a laugh—as she started making her way up the dock. She walked by Bruce, lightly knocking a fist against his shoulder as she passed by.

Bruce watched her walk off before he looked back at Clint, who was also watching her leave. He saw the moment Clint looked over at him, and their eyes met. Clint grinned again and waved Bruce over.

With a smile, Bruce walked up the dock and sat down next to Clint. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Clint replied, lightly bumping shoulders with him. “You have any plans today?” he asked.

“I was hoping to ask you that,” Bruce replied with a smile. “Why?”

Clint shrugged a little. “Well, if you’re feeling up for it, I was thinking of a hike somewhere? Nothing too strenuous, I promise.”

That…that played into Bruce’s plans pretty well, actually. He smiled. “That sounds nice,” he agreed. 

Clint grinned, bright and beautiful, and Bruce’s stomach flipped happily in his core.

==

Clint drove them back to Skyline Drive. They had packed a picnic lunch and dinner and then they were off, windows down to let in the mountain breezes. Bruce alternated between looking out the windshield at the passing scenery and then over at Clint, watching how the wind rustled his hair and how the sunlight shone on his face. 

They pulled over at one of overlooks for lunch, sharing a bench at a picnic table so they could look out over the valley and the surrounding hills and mountains. It was a lovely day; the clouds overhead were white and fluffy and being this high up in the mountain range, the temperature was quite pleasant. 

“So you really enjoyed this area, huh?” Bruce asked after they had finished their lunch. They had stayed where they were pressed against each other, looking out over the view. 

“I did,” Clint agreed with a nod. “There were a few trails on your list that we didn’t get to the last time we were here.”

“You saw my list?” Bruce asked, smiling.

Clint grinned and peered over at him. “I saw your list,” he confirmed. “There were a lot of trails you had written down on it, so I looked up some of the easier and shorter ones. I figure we can knock a few out today, if you’re feeling up to it.”

“That sounds amazing,” Bruce replied, leaning in to press a kiss against his cheek. His mind was already planning everything out. As long as they stayed on the Drive for the next several hours, everything would line up perfectly.

Clint tipped his chin and caught Bruce in a proper kiss. “Awesome,” he replied once they broke apart. 

==

They hiked a few different trails, holding hands as they leisurely strolled down the different paths. Clint had picked out a few with breathtaking views of the valley and others with waterfalls. 

With it being a Sunday, the trails were a bit more crowded. There were families picnicking at the different trail attractions. Thankfully, no one seemed to recognize them, which was nice. While it was okay to sometimes interact with fans, he wanted today to just be about them.

And it was. They spent the day together, just enjoying each other’s company while taking in the scenic trails around them. There were times they chatted about anything and everything, and then there were times they spent in just a companionable silence. It was wonderful, just getting to spend the day with Clint with no real agenda. 

They had a picnic dinner at an overlook that faced eastward over the valley. They ended up lingering there, too, curled up against each other and watching the shadows pass over the land from the clouds overhead.

Finally, the shadows from the nearby trees started to grow long. The sun would be setting soon.

Clint heaved a little sigh. “Alright, ready to start heading back?” he asked, looking over at Bruce. 

Bruce smiled. “Sure,” he replied. They had to get to a westward facing overlook to catch the sunset. He knew it wouldn’t take any convincing to get Clint to pull over into the right spot.

They got up from the picnic table and returned to the rental car. Bruce could feel the anticipation in him building. He didn’t feel nervous, just excited. He tried to keep a straight face, but it was hard to keep all of his bubbling happy emotions inside.

Once they were buckled in and pulling back onto the road, Bruce reached over and grabbed Clint’s hand, slotting their hands together easily to rest on the center console. “Thank you for today,” he said, unable to keep from smiling. “This has been nice.”

Clint gave Bruce’s hand in his a gentle squeeze and he turned a smile over to Bruce. “It has,” he answered, and something in his tone made Bruce’s core flip. “We really need to do this more often…just getting away from work to do something fun, just the two of us.” He focused back on the road and the smile on his face was soft, genuine and loving. “I really missed this.”

Bruce stared for a long moment, feeling his heart begin to beat a little faster. “I did, too,” he said softly. “I really missed this, too.”

Clint looked back at him and their eyes locked for a moment before they both looked back out the windshield. Their hands remained together on the center console.

As they drove, Bruce kept on the lookout for the next overlook. They were rounding the mountain now, so they would be coming up on the westward facing side of the mountain soon. The sky was starting to change colors.

Finally, there was a sign announcing the next overlook. Bruce gave Clint’s hand a squeeze. “Want to watch the sunset?” he asked, looking back over.

Clint looked back at him and smiled. “Yeah, that sounds nice,” he replied.

As the road curved along the side of the mountain, the tree line vanished and they were left with a gorgeous view of the horizon and surrounding peaks. Bruce felt himself smile immediately. The sky was a gorgeous mix of oranges and pinks with a promise of purple. It was breathtaking.

Clint pulled the car into the parking lot of the overlook and parked the car. Their hands reluctantly parted to allow them to get out of the vehicle. Once they were out, though, they circled the car until they were standing in front of the front bumper and their hands came back together.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, hands clasped together and just looking at the awe-inspiring view. The surrounding mountains were going blue with the fading light and the pinks were slowly darkening into purples. 

After a few moments of just looking, Bruce managed to look away and found a few larger rocks off to the side of the parking lot. He smiled and lightly nudged Clint with his shoulder. “Come on,” he said softly.

When Clint followed his gaze to the boulders, he laughed a little. “You sneaky man,” he said with a pleased grin. “You timed this.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Bruce asked, not even bothering to go for innocent.

Clint laughed again and started to lead the way over to the rocks. “You sap,” he said fondly.

“You love it,” Bruce replied with a smile.

“I really do,” Clint replied instantly, and then he immediately came to a stop, his smile dropping away as he shot a look back at Bruce.

Bruce also stopped, feeling his heart beat hard in his chest as he stared at Clint. Did he…?

They stood there for a moment, just staring at one another. The sunset cast Clint’s face in purplish light, casting shadows on the other half of his face. They stood frozen, hands clutching at the other and breathing, unable to look away.

“Clint, I want—”

“Bruce, there’s something—”

They both paused, staring at each other for a moment of disbelief, and then they laughed. Bruce’s chest felt so warm and he felt so light as he stared at Clint, who was staring at him with just so much love and disbelief. They kept laughing and Bruce pulled Clint in. Their arms immediately wrapped around each other and they just embraced, pulling the other tight against them as they continued to laugh in just such happiness. 

“I can’t believe it,” Clint panted, pressing his face against Bruce’s throat and hugging him even tighter. 

“You can’t be serious,” Bruce laughed. “Did we _seriously_ plan the same thing?”

Clint only laughed harder before he pulled his face away from Bruce’s neck to press their lips together. They kissed each other, pausing to keep laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Of _course_ they would try to say _I love you_ to the other at the same time and in the same way. They eventually had to just hug each other again, swaying a little in each other’s arms as they just reveled in everything.

The sky was darkening when they finally broke apart enough to look each other in the eye. Bruce let out a little breathless laugh when he saw the wetness in Clint’s eyes and he knew his were the same. Clint was smiling at him, full and bright and just so unspeakably happy that Bruce just wanted to reel him in and continue to hug and kiss and just love this man. 

Bruce smiled back at him. “Would you like the honors of saying it first?” he offered.

Clint laughed and pulled him back in to press their foreheads together. “I feel like we can say it at the same time,” he replied. 

They looked into each other’s eyes in the fading light of day and Bruce found himself mesmerized. There was just so much light in Clint’s eyes; they were so bright. 

“Clint,” Bruce said, almost feeling like he could laugh again.

Clint almost laughed himself. “Bruce,” he replied.

They stared at one another, and then together, they drew a breath.

“I love you.”

They both grinned and then they were embracing again, pulling the other as close as they could. They kissed in intervals and laughed in others. 

“Say it again,” Clint said as he broke away from a kiss, tucking his face back into Bruce’s neck. 

Bruce brought his hand up to hold the back of Clint’s head, running his fingers through his hair. “I love you,” Bruce said again, elated that he could finally say it. “I love you. I’ve been in love with you for a while now. You’re just so kind and loving and _good,_ and I love you.”

Clint laughed again and pulled Bruce closer, crushing their bodies together. “I love you, too,” he answered, pulling his face back to grin brightly at Bruce. “I love how considerate you are, how compassionate you are, your sense of humor, just… I love you.”

Bruce felt that wave of electricity roll through him and he felt breathless with happiness. He drew Clint back into another kiss and Clint gladly kissed back.

Finally, they managed to break apart. The sun had gone down at that point and the stars were starting to come out. Clint glanced up and he laughed. “I had been waiting for this,” he said. “I was going to tell you under the stars.”

Bruce laughed and kissed him again. “I was hoping to do it during the sunset.”

Clint laughed at that. “You beat me to it, then,” he said before pressing another kiss to his lips before they just went back to embracing. 

Bruce pressed his face to Clint’s shoulder and just breathed him in. He ran his hands up along Clint’s back and just basked in everything. Clint loved him. He smiled against Clint’s shoulder. “I think we both win in this,” he replied.

“Can’t argue with that,” Clint agreed, sounding perfectly happy.

They were quiet. The sounds of nighttime were starting to become more prevalent. They continued to hold each other, taking moments to kiss, to hug, and to repeat those three words to each other. 

_I love you._


	29. Crickets Chirping

With a sense of finality, Bruce drew a breath and closed the book. He had finally finished all of the _Harry Potter_ series. He carefully set it aside, keeping his movements gentle to avoid waking Clint. 

Bruce looked down at the man curled up against him, his head pillowed on Bruce’s chest and his face evened out in his sleep. Bruce knew he had a smile on his face as he looked down at his guy. Just looking at him, he got that same intoxicating sensation of feeling lighter than air and tingly all over. That joy had only grown stronger each time Clint told him he loved him since last night. It was impossible not to feel like he could burst with his happiness each and every time he heard Clint say _I love you._

And seeing that joy reflected on Clint’s face every time Bruce told him _I love you_ just made that feeling grow and grow.

They had gotten back late last night and were inseparable all day today. They had come down to breakfast late this morning and could hardly keep their hands to themselves. Whether it was tangling their ankles under the picnic table, holding hands, or just leaning into each other’s space, it was like they couldn’t stand the thought of being separate for more than a moment.

Their happiness must have been written clear across their faces. Tony had taken one look at them at breakfast and clapped them both on the shoulder with a nod of approval before going back to his cup of coffee. Natasha outright hugged them both. Bruce had laughed a little; it seemed that Clint had confided in Natasha like Bruce had confided in Tony. It was nice to know their friends—their family—supported them.

They had come back upstairs to their bedroom in the late afternoon, curling up on the bedspread and curling up against each other. It was a lazy day, but that suited them just fine. With the amount of hiking they had done yesterday and the exhausting exhilaration of their mutual declarations, a nice relaxing day spent together was a welcome change. 

The window to the room was open, letting in the mountain breezes and lightly ruffling the soft curtains. Outside, Bruce could hear birds singing to one another and crickets beginning to chirp. The natural light was beginning to fade a little, signaling it was getting close to dusk. 

Bruce watched the curtains gently sway with the breeze, letting one of his hands absently start to gently run through Clint’s hair. His heart clenched a little when Clint made a sleepy noise and snuggled into his chest a little before settling. He almost didn’t want to wake Clint up, but it was getting late and they needed to grab some dinner before it got any later.

Gently, Bruce ducked his head a little and pressed a soft kiss to Clint’s temple. Clint made another sleepy sound and Bruce felt himself smile against Clint’s temple before he pressed another kiss there. And then he pressed a kiss to his forehead, and then to into his hair, where he settled. His hand traveled down his neck and to the planes of his back, feeling the warmth coming off of his bare skin.

Clint turned his face a little more into Bruce’s chest as he started waking up. Bruce’s hand came to a stop on his upper back. He hid his smile in Clint’s hair before he pressed another kiss there. “Clint,” he whispered.

“No,” Clint replied, muffled from where his face was pressed against Bruce’s chest. The complaint was followed by a lingering kiss, so Bruce didn’t take it too seriously.

“Clint,” Bruce said again, drawing his head back just enough to look down at him.

“You woke me up,” Clint mumbled in protest. “I thought you loved me.”

Bruce laughed at that and ran his hand up Clint’s back into his hair. “Oh, we’re already there?” He felt Clint’s answering grin against his chest. “Come on, we have to get up. It’s almost sunset.”

“Which means it’s almost nighttime, which means it’s almost _bedtime,”_ Clint argued playfully as he brought his hand up. He ran his fingers through Bruce’s chest hair and smiled triumphantly when Bruce breathed a little harder in response.

Turnabout was fair play.

Bruce gave a little sigh. “Well,” he said wistfully as he started to shuffle slowly away, “if that’s the case, I guess I’ll go shower alone, then.”

He was already laughing when Clint immediately threw his arms around him, pulling him back close. Clint leaned over him, keeping his hand on his chest to keep Bruce pinned to the mattress. “You—” Clint said accusingly as he started kissing up Bruce’s neck to his jaw. “—didn’t mention _anything_ —” He pulled away just enough to looked Bruce in the eyes. “—about showers.”

“What’s a little lie of omission between lovers?” Bruce asked a little breathlessly as his hands unconsciously went to Clint’s face to pull him in for a kiss.

Clint hummed hungrily against his lips and pressed their bodies more firmly together.

==

They eventually made it to the shower and then downstairs. By the time they heated up some leftovers and gone to sit outside, it was well and truly night.

Off in the yard, Bruce could see the others gathered around a campfire. He led the way toward the fire pit and found Natasha, Bucky, Steve, and Tony sitting around the fire. Tony and Steve were clearly biting back laughter as Natasha and Bucky bickered about something or another.

“What did we miss?” Clint asked as they sat down, causing the heated conversation to pause. He balanced his bowl on his knees so one of his hands was free, which immediately went to Bruce’s knee. Bruce easily covered his hand with one of his own.

“They’re arguing about which is the better type of dagger,” Steve supplied.

“You mean aside from being pointy and good for stabbing?” Clint asked before eating a spoonful of curry.

Bruce smiled at the twin looks of disgust Clint received from Bucky and Natasha.

With the conversation about the lethality of daggers well and truly over, they settled back to just enjoy the fire for a moment. There was a breeze that swept gently through their circle, carrying with it some of the stray floating embers. The wind rustled the leaves on the surrounding trees. There was a crack from within the fire and one of the pieces of wood collapsed in the grate, sending up more embers. Overlaying all of these noises were the sounds of crickets, out in force now that the sun had gone down. Their music surrounded them.

“So, Cap,” Tony began, turning to look at Steve, “you going to let me shoot off fireworks this year for your birthday?”

Steve sighed a little. “Tony, the city will already have plenty of fireworks going off. We don’t need more.”

“You can always have more,” Tony protested. “Manhattan needs to know it’s celebrating both America’s and _Captain_ America’s birthday.”

“They already know,” Steve replied. 

Bucky propped his chin into his hand and looked Tony over. “I don’t know, Stark,” he drawled a little, looking bored. “Me and Steve used to go to Coney Island to watch the fireworks shows, which were pretty spectacular. That’s a high bar to overcome.”

Tony looked over at Bucky, his eyes calculating. “One: don’t call me Stark,” Tony began, holding up a finger. “Two: I know what you’re doing, and I like it.” He then grinned and looked over at Steve. “See? Now I have to prove him wrong.”

Steve turned an unimpressed look over at Bucky. “What have you done?” he asked in a tired voice.

Bucky simply took a sip of his beer and looked straight back at Steve, daring him to protest more.

As Tony began to brainstorm his fireworks extravaganza out loud, Bruce just sat back and smiled as he listened. It was nice to hear people making plans to have fun once they were back in New York. Their break away from the stressors of their busy lives had really seemed to instill an appreciation for their free time together again. Bruce was certain he would likely not be repeating his three-day lab marathon anytime soon, barring an emergency. 

And that was okay. 

It was okay to take breaks, to take the time to stop and just appreciate the present, or to take the time to stop and realize that something wasn’t working. Being able to recognize when things were getting to be too much and then being able to _fix_ it was a gift. 

Bruce knew he had a mountain of projects waiting for him back in New York. There were new tests to run, new experiments to begin, new studies to be had. He had interns that would require his attention and tutelage. There were missions that would require either Bruce or Hulk or the both of them. 

There was a lot waiting for him back home, but for now, he could sit back and listen to his family argue about whether fifty thousand dollars was too much to spend on fireworks to celebrate Steve’s birthday and show- up the rest of New York. Bucky and Clint were actively egging Tony on, despite Steve’s protests. Natasha was just watching everything unfold, sipping idly on her beer.

He could feel the heat of Clint’s hand on his knee, of the roughened skin beneath his palm.

For now, he could listen to his family, to the sounds of the fire in front of him, to the leaves rustling, and to the crickets chirping.


	30. Sleeping Under the Stars

“I think that’s everything.”

Bruce poked his head out of the adjoining bathroom and glanced into the bedroom. Clint was standing with his hands on his hips, looking down at the closed suitcase and duffle bag on the mattress.

He could hardly believe that their time in Virginia was coming to an end. The days had just flown by. Just getting to get away for a few weeks—to take a much needed break, to spend time with their family, to spend time with Clint—had been an absolute treasure. He would miss this place dreadfully, but he was so grateful that they had even come in the first place. 

Tomorrow, they’d be driving the rental cars back to that little town about an hour away, and then they’d be flying back to Manhattan, back to the real world and all of their responsibilities.

Bruce stepped out of the bathroom and tossed the toiletry bags upon the bedspread, too. “No need to fully pack up yet,” Bruce reminded him, wrapping an arm around Clint’s waist as he came to a stop next to his guy. “Checkout’s not until noon tomorrow.”

“I know,” Clint replied. His arm looped around Bruce’s shoulders and he pulled him a little closer. “But you know breakfast is going to be chaotic and rushing everything won’t be much fun.”

Bruce hummed in agreement, looking down at the bedspread. Along with their luggage were their prizes from the fair. It felt like ages ago, when they had won each other their gifts. The cardinal and rhino stuffed animals were dwarfed by the giant sushi cat plushy. 

He smiled at the wave of contentment that washed over him from Hulk at the sight of the giant stuffed animal.

That date to the fair—their first real date in weeks—felt like ages ago.

And the fact that they had had several others over the span of the last month just made him feel so warm and full. They had gotten to spend an entire weekend together without the stress of work looming over them. There was a promise to not let weeks go by again before their next date, and Bruce genuinely felt like it was a promise they could both keep. This trip had really cemented those desires.

“What are you smiling about?” Clint asked, lightly jostling him.

Bruce slowly moved until they were standing face to face and their arms automatically wrapped loosely around one another. Bruce pressed a soft kiss to Clint’s lips, smiling when Clint kissed back.

They broke apart and their foreheads came together. Bruce was smiling, and even though his eyes were closed, he knew Clint was smiling, too. “I just really love you,” Bruce said softly, smiling even more at the shaky breath Clint exhaled at that. He kissed him again, and again, and again when Clint kissed him. “Thank you,” Bruce said between kisses. His arms traveled up from Clint’s waist to his back, pulling him closer. “Thank you for suggesting this vacation. This has been…” He huffed a little laugh. “This is the happiest I’ve been in a long time, Clint, and I have you to thank for that.”

“Bruce…” Clint breathed.

Bruce had to kiss him again. “I love you so much,” he said again. “Thank you.”

Clint pressed another kiss to Bruce’s mouth before his lips went to Bruce’s cheek, then to his jaw, and then to his neck. “I love you, too,” he whispered, pulling him into a tighter embrace. “And I love seeing you this happy, Bruce, I really do.” He pressed his lips against Bruce’s throat, not so much a kiss, but just a gentle pressure. “I don’t know that I’ve been happy like this before.”

Bruce felt his eyes go a little watery and he tightened his hold on Clint.

They stayed like that for a solid few minutes, just holding each other in the quiet of the room they had made theirs for the past month. There was a sense of security that came with being in each other’s arms when everything got a little overwhelming. 

After a few more moments, Clint kissed Bruce’s throat again and pulled away just enough to look Bruce in the eyes. Bruce was nearly overwhelmed again by just the sheer amount of love and affection he could see in Clint’s expression. 

“I have one last thing,” Clint said softly, like it was a secret, “one last surprise to round out our trip.”

“Oh?” Bruce said just as softly.

Clint smiled and pressed a long, lingering kiss to Bruce’s lips before he drew back until they were just holding hands. 

Bruce followed after Clint as he led the way, out of the room and down the stairs. They passed through the living room at the bottom of the stairs and into the kitchen, straight to the door that led to the backyard deck.

They stepped outside. It was already nighttime and the temperature had dropped, giving the night just a hint of chill to offset the warmth that had permeated the lovely summer day. The moon overhead was on its way to full, which provided just enough light to see by as they crossed the deck and wandered into the backyard.

Bruce felt himself smile when he spotted their tent set up in the yard. “What is this?” he asked with a pleased little laugh.

Clint smiled back at him as they came to a stop just outside of the tent. “It’s our last night out here,” he said. “I thought one last night out under the stars would be nice, since it might be a while before we have a view like this again.”

There was another flood of warmth that went through Bruce and he breathed a shaky little laugh as he pulled Clint in. “And you call me the sap,” he murmured against his lips before he kissed him.

Clint hummed into the kiss, his hands coming up to cup Bruce’s jaw. “You’re the biggest romantic I know, what are you talking about?” he whispered before kissing him again.

“And yet here we are,” Bruce replied, laughing into the next kiss.

It turned out that Clint had already set everything up inside the tent. Their sleeping bags were all rolled out and there were their flashlights they had used while on their camping trip earlier that month. The pillows had been brought out from the car, along with a blanket they could share.

Once they had popped back inside to prepare for bed, they came back outside. They pulled their sleeping bags and pillows partially out of the tent. They then curled up together on top of their sleeping bags and beneath the blanket, snuggled happily into each other’s space. 

And once they were comfortable against each other, their eyes went skyward.

Laid out before them was the open sky, where countless starts twinkled happily lightyears away. They would never get a view like this in New York City, not without a power outage or something to eliminate the light pollution. Here, so far from even a small town, there was only the light of the moon to brighten the sky. 

It was as breathtaking as it was humbling. It was something Bruce would do in his travels as a fugitive, looking up at the stars. While he’d be on the road between destinations, he could look up at the sky and at once be humbled in the knowledge that he was tiny in the grand scheme of things, but it also brought a sense of humanity in the knowledge that there were other humans in the world looking up at the stars and sharing that moment with him. It was at times frightening and at others it brought him joy, knowing that no matter how small he was, he could share that piece of community in looking up at the same night sky.

And to be here now, sharing it with Clint, just made his chest feel full. To be looking up at the night sky, at the endless expense of stars in the galaxy, with the man he loved—the man who loved him—brought him so much joy.

Bruce snuggled that much closer to Clint and Clint welcomed him. They ended up settling with Bruce’s head cushioned on Clint’s shoulder. Clint’s pinned arm was wrapped around Bruce, his hand settled on Bruce’s arm to keep him close. 

They quickly got comfortable and went back to looking skyward. As they watched, there were a few shooting stars that streaked across the night sky before disappearing again. All around them were the sounds of nature at night. There was the chirping of crickets all around them and occasionally they could hear an owl off in the distance. There was the near-constant gentle rustling of leaves and grass from the stray mountain breezes.

It was so peaceful.

Bruce felt Clint breathe out a wistful little sigh. “I’m going to miss this,” he said, longing clear in his tone. His hand lightly started to absently run along Bruce’s arm. 

“Then let’s take more trips,” Bruce mused with the same sense of longing. “Let’s keep doing getaways like this, just us.”

“Yeah?” Clint asked, tone hopeful.

“Yeah,” Bruce replied, smiling. He reached up and took hold of the hand on his arm. “Just you and me.”

“I’d like that,” Clint answered, and Bruce could hear the smile in his voice. “So, pretty nice way to end a vacation?” 

Bruce felt himself smiling again. He couldn’t help it. He was just feeling so much, like he could burst with the amount of love he had for this man. “I love it,” he replied back, quietly, just for Clint. “I love you.”

Clint tilted his head enough to press a kiss into Bruce’s hair. “I love you,” he whispered back. 

Tomorrow, they’d leave this little haven and the mountains behind to return to the city. They’d be returning to their work and responsibilities, but not at the breakneck speeds they had been rocketing toward a month ago, Bruce was positive about that. There would be work to be done, missions and reconnaissance to complete, but interspersed in all of it would be time for breaks. There would be time to spend with their family. There would be time for just the two of them.

But for tonight, there was the vast array of stars above them, stars upon stars upon stars. There was the steady and reassuring rise and fall of Clint’s chest under his head and the warm hand in his. 

And there was the knowledge that he was loved, and that he was in love.

And that was the best feeling of all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I wish you all a happy summer! Stay safe, stay well, and be kind. <3


End file.
